Russia's debt default

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/27/russia-defaults-on-foreign-debt-for-first-time-since-1917-revolution-reports

Russia is poised to default on its debt for the first time since 1998, further alienating the country from the global financial system after sanctions imposed over its war in Ukraine.

The country missed a deadline of Sunday night to meet a 30-day grace period on interest payments of $100m (£81.2m) on two eurobonds originally due on 27 May, Bloomberg reported on Monday morning.

Some Taiwanese holders of Russian eurobonds said on Monday that they had not received interest payments due, two sources told Reuters. Official confirmation of the default was expected to come from international ratings agencies.

Russia’s efforts to avoid the default hit a insurmountable roadblock in late May when the US treasury department’s office of foreign assets control (OFAC) effectively blocked Moscow from making payments.

In spite of the fact that Russia has plenty of money to pay its debts, the US government is using the banking system to block all payments that are coming due. Last Sunday was a deadline to pay two Eurobonds worth about $100 million. That amount, of course, could easily have been paid by Russia, which has more cash than ever before, due to the rise in the prices of oil and gas caused by the US and EU sanctions.

So who is punished by this “default”? Obviously, those who are holding the bonds. Russia gets to keep its money, at least for the time being. The only serious side effect is that the Russian ruble keeps getting stronger. It now takes only 53 rubles to buy a dollar, whereas it took 80 of them before the start of the war. Russia keeps on lowering interest rates in the attempt to prevent the ruble from strengthening too much, but to no avail.

https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=USD&To=RUB

At this rate, thanks to the Bidenista policy, Russia will soon become the world reserve currency and oil and gas will be priced in petro-rubles.

In the guise of being anti-Russian, the US government is steadily making Russia great again. It makes me wonder if the Russians succeeded in infiltrating the Biden regime, pretending to be anti-Russian, but in actuality making the US government look stupid. The overall result is that Russia is fast becoming a superpower for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

We ought not to equate America with its Babylonian ruling class. Russia and China are the new “kings from the east” (Revelation 16:12) that have been raised up by God to overthrow Babylon and to set us free—just as the Medes and Persians did to ancient Babylon. Recall that Cyrus the Persian (as a type of Christ (Isaiah 45:1), issued his edict setting the captives free.

Unfortunately, we all have to go through the difficulties brought about by the Babylonian government as it struggles to keep its superpower status. Yet it beats having to go through an all-out war, perhaps nuclear. I have prayed and pondered this question for decades and believe now that we will not be hit with a world war, certainly not a nuclear war. The only nuclear incident, I believe, will be in the Israeli state, for this is prophesied in Isaiah 29:1-6.

The question in my mind came about in the early 1980’s when it struck me that Babylon was taken intact by the Medes and Persians who had dried up the River Euphrates. The casualty list given in Daniel 5:30 is a short list of one—Belshazzar the king of Babylon. That made me wonder how Babylon would fall in our own time.

I have had nearly 4 decades to ponder this now. While many others have received visions and revelations of great destruction and of Russia and China invading us with uniformed soldiers after a nuclear exchange, God has consistently told me that no such thing will happen. So what can I say? I am just one lone voice contradicting many prominent prophets in the church.

Nonetheless, I have been given the understanding of the “kings from the east” that few others have been given. Most view Revelation 16:12 as cause for alarm, for they picture China coming with a 200 million man army to invade the land of Israel. Such prophecy teachers do not know history, nor do they understand that Revelation 16:12 is the parallel to the ancient kings from the east that overthrew Babylon in order to set God’s people free.

In other words, Revelation 16:12 pictures an angelic work that sets the stage in the sixth bowl for the overthrow of Babylon, which is the seventh bowl. The angel is simply answering our prayers to be released from the captivity of the Laodicean era. History prophesies by setting patterns for a future parallel event. We are now living in the days when we are seeing the fulfillment of these historic patterns. If we do not know history, we will simply not know how prophecy will be fulfilled.

So lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing nigh.