What was the 1998 market collapse caused by Russia's debt default and ruble devaluation called?

The 1998 market collapse caused by Russia’s debt default and ruble devaluation was called the Russian financial crisis.

Russia declared a moratorium on some foreign debt payments and devalued the ruble on August 17, 1998. The announcement followed years of fiscal weakness, low tax collection, political uncertainty, and heavy dependence on commodity revenues. Domestic banks and investors faced severe losses as confidence collapsed.

The crisis also affected international markets. The highly leveraged U.S. hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management suffered major losses on positions involving Russian and other markets. The Federal Reserve helped broker a private-sector recapitalization of the fund in September 1998, fearing that an uncontrolled liquidation could destabilize the financial system.

The Russian crisis is sometimes reduced to the phrase “ruble crisis,” but the event included sovereign default, currency devaluation, banking distress, and a stock-market collapse. Russia’s later recovery benefited from higher oil prices and macroeconomic changes, but those developments came after the immediate turmoil.