Actually, from what I read its a little worse-- they've made the payment to a european bank and that bank hasn't distributed the funds. It's not clear why they

Actually, from what I read its a little worse-- they've made the payment to a european bank and that bank hasn't distributed the funds. It's not clear why they haven't but its most likely sanction related. While it was not explicitly stated in what I read, it sounded like the bank was some sort of make-shift stand-up to convert rubles to euros and dollars to work around the sanctions issue. So, it's more like you go to the bank on the 25th to make your payment due on the 30th and then the bank just doesn't pay the bill, forecloses the house and confiscates the property-- all the while putting out press releases about how you defaulted. EDIT: I just looked it up, the bank in question is Euroclear and isn't something specifically setup for this. It sounds like Russia always paid in Rubles and they paid that to Euroclear who then distributed the payments in whatever currency the bonds and such were held in, but due to sanctions they're no longer doing that. So Russia is paying the bill, the middle man just isn't distributing it due to the sanctions. My understanding of them always having paid in rubles might be incorrect, but it sounds like managing those nuances is what the purpose of the bank is.