Russia’s central bank offered on Wednesday to help top exporters refinance heavy foreign debts next year, expected to be one of the toughest of President Vladimir Putin’s 15-year rule for the economy due to Western sanctions and a plunge in oil prices. The bank said it would help major Russian companies to refinance foreign debts by lending dollars and euros to those who were willing to put up their foreign borrowings as collateral. The move means that the state will in effect take on credit risk for the companies, whose foreign debt obligations have shot up in ruble terms because of the currency’s sharp slide this year. Even before the move, Standard and Poors put Russia’s sovereign credit outlook on “creditwatch negative”, meaning it could downgrade it to junk as soon as January due to a “rapid deterioration of Russia’s monetary flexibility”. While Russia has minimal […]