By Rodrigo Campos and Davide Barbuscia

NEW YORK (Reuters – Russia might have prevented default after it revealed that several outstanding payments had been made in dollars to its foreign bonds. The market now focuses on the future and whether Russia will prevent a major default.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, sanctions against the United States and allies have been imposed on Russia.

Russia has called the “special military operations” an invasion. It has made Russia a pariah in many financial markets and interfered with its ability to repay its debts.

In April, the United States stopped Russia from freezing its reserves in order to pay $650 million to bondholders. This dramatically raised the risk of default.

Russia’s financial ministry stated that $564.8 million was paid in US dollars for redemption and coupon obligations. The payments were made on bonds due to mature in 2022 and 2042. Another bond will be due in 2042. A coupon payment of $84.4million is also being made.

It surprised the markets, who had been preparing for Russia to default at Wednesday’s end of the grace-period. That would have made Russia the largest external default in more than a century.

WHAT DID YOU DO ON APRIL 29TH?

Russian finance minister announced that it had paid $650 million to two holders of dollar bonds. Two creditors claimed that they have not seen the funds in their accounts. A senior U.S. government official however confirmed that payment had been made, and it appeared that the source of the payments was beyond the restrictions.

Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee was made up of major banks and asset management firms around the world. It met Friday to acknowledge the Russia payments and make plans for next week’s credit default swap auction “solely for preparation for the possible Failure to Pay Credit Event.”

WHAT WAS THE MARKET REACTION?

Russian bond prices increased according to traders. Some cases were up by 15%, which almost doubled their value. The prices of bonds issued by major companies like Gazprom (MCX) and Lukoil (NASDAQ:), were also up by 2-5 cents.

Insurance against Russia’s default got less expensive, with five-year credit default swaps (CDS) linked to Russia’s sovereign debt down to 64.333% upfront from 76.4% upfront on Thursday, according to S&P Global (NYSE:) Market Intelligence.

WHAT’S NEXT?

If Friday’s announcements of payments go well, the focus will now shift to two events in May.

1. Transactions between U.S. individuals and Russia’s central bank, finance ministry or national wealth fund can only be allowed by a temporary license from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control. This license expires on May 25, 2017. The U.S. Treasury did not respond to whether the deadline would be extended.

2) Russia will be responsible for coupon payments on May 27, 2016 on both a euro and a dollar bond.

While the payment for the Euro bond can be made in rubles as an option, the Dollar bond doesn’t have this provision.

In the bond for the April 4 payment, rouble payments were not included as an option. It was crucial to determine that Russia had attempted to pay in rouble.

WHAT IS THE RUSSIA’S OBLIGATION AND HOW MUCH DOES MOSCOW HAVE CASH?

Russia has about $2 billion worth of international bond payments until the end, according to last week’s payments.

Before the Ukraine crisis, roughly $20 billion or half of the foreign currency outstanding was owned by money managers and investment funds outside Russia.

Russian default threatens to be a strange threat because Moscow expects to have enough money to meet its obligations. Moscow is more interested in paying from cash than it can pay, despite the fact that certain of its sources may be frozen under sanctions.

The sanctions resulted in only half of Russia’s foreign reserves of more than $600 billion being frozen.

Although Europe pledged diversification of its energy purchases this year, Russia still managed to generate an average revenue of $1 billion per day from oil, coal, and gas sales.