Putin will leave Russia for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin He will travel to Tajikistan on Tuesday and then visit Turkmenistan for one Caspian Sea SummitHis spokesman said, the Russian leader’s first trip abroad since Invasion of Ukraine in February.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call with reporters on Monday that Putin would hold talks with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon in Dushanbe. Peskov said he is also scheduled to attend the Caspian Sea summit in Turkmenistan on Wednesday.

It was the last time the Russian president left the country In early February when he visited Beijing To speak with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, during the Winter Olympics. Putin accepted an invitation to attend G20 Summit in Indonesia in November, but the Kremlin did not say if he would attend in person or participate online.

Russia defaults on foreign debt

Putin will leave the country this week because it marks a month since the end of foreign interest payments.

For months, Russia has found ways to overcome Penalties imposed After the Kremlin invaded its neighbour. But at the end of trading on Sunday, the grace period was halted on about 100 million interest payments May 27A deadline is considered a default event if it is not met.

The move is a grim sign in the country’s rapid transformation into an economic, financial and political pariah. Eurobonds in the country have been trading at challenging levels since early March, Central bank foreign exchange reserves remain frozen and the The largest banks are cut off from the global financial system.

The last time Russia defaulted on its foreign debt was more than a century ago, when Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks repudiated in 1918 the staggering debt burden of the Czar era.