(ANSA) - BELGRADE, JUN 27 - As a result of increasingly strict Western sanctions that blocked payment avenues to foreign creditors, Russia experienced its first sovereign default on foreign-currency debt in a century, Bloomberg reported.

Russia worked around the sanctions imposed after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine for months. But on Sunday evening, the grace period for a nearly $100 million in overdue interest payments that were scheduled to be made on May 27 ran out. Missing this date would be viewed as a default event. (ANSA).