REUTERS
The International Monetary Fund will change its lending rules to allow it to keep supporting countries if they fail to repay official creditors, a move that would help Ukraine if it misses payments on a $3 billion debt to Russia, according to Reuters.
"The IMF's Executive Board met today and agreed to change the current policy on non-toleration of arrears to official creditors," chief spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement, Reuters reported.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the decision looked rushed and biased.
"It's taken exclusively to the detriment of Russia and in order to legalize Kyiv not repaying its debts," he told reporters in Moscow.
Ukraine is restructuring its debts to plug a $15 billion funding gap under an IMF-led $40 billion bailout. Defaulting on the eurobond, which matures on December 20, could have put the program at risk.
Russia refused to allow the eurobond to be included in Ukraine's recent debt restructuring, arguing that it was made as an "official sector" bilateral loan rather than being a standard bond.
IMF policy had been to tolerate arrears to private creditors, but not to sovereign states.