Russia declared a moratorium on some debt payments on August 17, 1998, during the 1998 Russian financial crisis.
The announcement included a de facto devaluation of the ruble and a 90-day moratorium on certain private foreign debts. Russia was under pressure from falling commodity prices, heavy government borrowing, weak tax collection, and the after-effects of the Asian financial crisis.
The decision caused severe disruption in domestic financial markets. The ruble later lost much of its value, while Russian banks and businesses faced major balance-sheet problems. International investors also suffered losses, and the turmoil contributed to broader global financial stress.
The crisis is sometimes simplified as a sovereign default, but the August announcement combined several measures and did not represent a single, conventional default on every category of Russian obligation. The precise wording matters because different debt instruments received different treatment.