(Bloomberg) -- Russia will halt bond auctions for the remainder of 2022 due to prohibitive borrowing costs, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was quoted as saying by Izvestia.

“We do not plan to go to the local market or foreign markets this year,” Siluanov told the Russian outlet. “It makes no sense because the borrowing cost would be cosmic.” 

With Russia under financial and economic sanctions by the U.S. and allied countries, the cost of insuring Russia’s government debt surged last week to signal a record 99% chance of default within the year after the Finance Ministry paid some of its dollar bonds with rubles.

Russia has sold 128 billion rubles in local-currency government bonds, known as OFZ, this year, according to Finance Ministry data. Plans had called for 700 billion rubles in sales in the first quarter. 

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