> Will that distinction make a difference to international investors? It does make a difference because the questions that the investors have to deal with now

> Will that distinction make a difference to international investors? It does make a difference because the questions that the investors have to deal with now are completely different to a "normal" default. Normally, there simply is no money, or you have to find a court where you can sue the foreign government. Now, there is money, and they could actually get paid today (maybe even in dollars) if they are happy to open a Russian bank account (I remember Russia suggesting something along those lines, basically the reverse of what they used to force Europeans to pay in Rubles for their gas). But that raises other questions: would that be breaching any sanctions? How are they going to get the money out? At what rates? The answers will also depend on their jurisdiction, whether they do any business with the US etc (a purely Chinese investor might actually be fine now). So in that sense it is quite different, but the result is similar (arguably even worse) - Russia is pretty much cut off from international (especially Western) capital markets, that's true.