The ministry confirmed in a statement that the ruble payment on debts due on Monday was made after the U.S. blocked the Russian government from using dollars for the payments from accounts at American financial institutions.
Washington took the step this week as part of a series of sanctions by Western governments to cut Russia off from the global financial system after its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia had tried to make the debt-servicing payment on the bonds using an account at an American correspondent bank, but that bank refused to process the transaction due to U.S. sanctions, the ministry said.
The ministry then turned to the Russian National Settlement Depository to make the payments in rubles through a local bank, and it said it now considers all debts to have been paid in full.
"Due to unfriendly actions of the U.S. Treasury, in order to fulfill the state debt obligations of the Russian Federation on the above bonds and to protect the interests of the owners of these securities, the Russian Ministry of Finance was forced to involve a Russian financial institution to make the necessary payments," the ministry said.
The ministry did not clarify whether the ruble payment was accepted by its bondholders.
Russia's government press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that blocked dollar debt payments could push Russia into an artificial default if creditors reject ruble payments.
"Russia has all the necessary resources to service its debts," Peskov said, according to Russian news service Interfax. "You know that significant amounts of our reserves are blocked in foreign states, therefore if this blocking will continue, and they will block our debt service payments, these can be paid in rubles."
"Theoretically, of course, some kind of default can be organized, but purely an artificial default. There are no grounds for a real default," Peskov said.
Ruble payments are considered to be technical defaults by some Russian bondholders.
International credit ratings agencies have flagged the risk that Russia could default on its government debt after Western sanctions restricted Moscow's access to foreign reserves, with Fitch warning of an imminent default on Russian state debt.
--Additional reporting by Najiyya Budaly and Al Barbarino. Editing by Joe Millis.
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