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But
a strong domestic investor base means the market, where a
politically driven selloff has sent benchmark rouble yields to
six-year highs, would weather tougher curbs, Timur Maksimov told
Reuters in an interview, adding that the ministry's 2022
issuance plans remained on track.
Russia has massed around 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian
border while denying it plans to invade https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-urges-de-escalation-over-ukraine-offers-russia-diplomatic-path-2022-01-27.
If it does, western countries have threatened new financial and
economic sanctions.
Under existing sanctions, U.S. investors are banned from buying
new OFZ bonds, and U.S. banks from buying sovereign Eurobonds
directly from Russia.
U.S. officials have floated the possibility of extending the
bans to cover secondary market trading of new issues of both
instruments.
On Tuesday, with 10-year yields at their highest since 2016, the
finance ministry cancelled scheduled OFZ auctions for a second
week running.
Auctions will resume once the market "normalises", Maksimov
said, adding that its current volatility was driven by politics
rather than economics and "such a situation cannot stay
forever."
With a record-high current account surplus of $120 billion last
year, enough gold and forex reserves to cover two years of
imports or Russia's entire external debt, officials say the
economy is in a good shape to withstand shocks.
Maksimov said the market would ride out disruption caused if
foreign investors sold all their OFZs, equivalent to just under
a fifth of total holdings.
"It (new sanctions) will cause serious short-term volatility,
but it will fundamentally change nothing. Because even if we
wash 19% out of the portfolio, we still have 80% (held by
domestic investors)," he said.
The finance ministry still plans to raise 3.3 trillion roubles
($41.5 billion) in OFZ bonds this year, re-introducing bonds
with floating-rate coupons in addition to its main fixed-coupon
OFZs, he said.
The ministry raised a record 5.3 trillion roubles in OFZ bonds
in 2020, of which over 3 trillion was secured by 'floaters',
which market players dominated by Russia's biggest banks favour.
Last year, borrowing halved to 2.6 trillion roubles, with no
'floaters' issued.
When re-introduced, floating-rate bonds will not exceed 25% of
the total OFZ stock in the medium term, Maksimov said.
($1 = 79.5984 roubles)
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; Writing by Katya Golubkova;
editing by John Stonestreet)
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