The First $3 Billion of a Ukraine Bailout Immediately Go to Russia
This is really too funny. Apparently, the Ukraine owes $3 billion to Russia in bonds that have been issued under UK law. One of the stipulations of the bonds is that if the Ukraine’s debt-to-GDP ratio should exceed 60%, the bonds will become immediately callable.
Once the Ukraine gets funding from the IMF, this is of course going to happen right away – its debt-to-GDP ratio will then most definitely exceed 60%, so the first $3 billion of any aid the Ukraine receives in the form of loans will right away flow into Russia’s coffers.
Of course there may be litigation first, but as Greek bondholders have found out, all those who held bonds issued under UK law were actually paid in full, while everybody else had to accept the ‘PSI’ and could basically go pound sand.
Of course it was all ‘voluntary’, but funny enough, the holders of Greek bonds issued under UK law didn’t turn out to be as altruistic as all the other ones. At least we have not heard of any ‘voluntary’ contributions made by them. It seems rather doubtful that Mr. Putin will be eager to become a voluntary contributor to bailing out a government which he deems illegitimate. Instead he’s going to take his money and run – or alternatively, make as-of-yet unspecified demands.
According to NBC:
