Russia lost $160bn in forex receipts last year due to the halving of the oil price to $50 a barrel, but was still able to pay down most of its foreign corporate debt due in 2015, President Vladimir Putin told a media forum in St. Petersburg on April 28.
"We've paid all this money [owed], $130bn, and most of the $60bn due for payment this year," Putin said at the event, organised by the Kremlin-created All-Russia People's Front party, Interfax reported. The central bank had previously estimated that Russian companies would have to pay around $65bn in 2015.
The president apportioned most of the blame for the ruble's weakening in 2014 and 2015 to the collapse of oil prices rather than Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.
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