After Default to Putin, What's Next for Ukraine-Russia Bond Row
- Failure to pay $3 billion pushes sides closer to legal battle
- Ukraine finance minister still hopeful for out-of-court deal
Ukrainian 50 hryvnia currency banknotes.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A two-year feud between Ukraine and Russia is on the verge of being played out in a London courtroom after the government in Kiev defaulted on $3 billion in bonds.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko followed through on months of threats on Friday by reneging on the debt sold by his predecessor to Russian President Vladimir Putin in December 2013, two months before Viktor Yanukovych was toppled and the former Soviet republics went from allies to adversaries.