Russia will take a tough stance if Ukraine decides not to pay its debts to Moscow in accordance with the previously reached agreement, said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in an interview broadcast today on Russian television.
Russia has criticized a new Ukrainian law enabling a moratorium on foreign debt payments and has threatened to sue Ukraine if it does not return the three billion dollars that Russia lent it in 2013.
Medvedev said in today's interview that this law is contradictory.
"They are probably thinking of private debts, but at the same time, they are hinting that they are not ready to repay the debts incurred by the government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych," Medvedev said, Reuters reported.
"If the law is formulated in this way, it would undoubtedly mean that Ukraine will not repay the debt... In that case, we would take the harshest possible position and defend our national interests," Medvedev said.
He also said that Russia is not "indifferent" to Ukrainian debts to private Russian creditors either, because it is a large number of debts to banks owned by the state.
"We will collect the debts. Banks will use all existing instruments, including, of course, judicial procedures," said the Russian Prime Minister.
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