Russian economy about to COLLAPSE: Putin warned nation ‘mighty close’ to default | City & Business | Finance

William Jackson, Chief Emerging Markets Economist at Capital Economics, said: “It looks highly likely that the Russian government won’t make the debt payments on 16th March- or will make those payments in rubles and will breach the terms of the bond contract.”

He added though, that a Russian default would be unlikely to have major impact on the global economy with exposure to Russia having reduced considerably in recent years.

Although default is now “widely expected and priced in”, Mr Jackson warned: “The risk is that there is one institution with particularly large exposure, which is masked by the aggregate data, which could trigger contagion elsewhere.”

Two major banks, Italian UniCredit and French BNP Paribas, have already warned about their potential exposure to Russia.