(Reuters) – Monday’s announcement by the Russian Finance Ministry that it had sent a request to a correspondent bank to pay coupons for eurobonds totaling $117.2million was a signal to market participants waiting to determine if Russia would default on its sovereign debt.

They mature in 2023 and 2043 and were the last to trade at least 20 cents per dollar.

It was not clear if Russia could or would make payments due to the restrictions.

State TV reported that Anton Siluanov, the Finance Minister, said on Monday that “this week, we will repay another Eurobond coupon.” Today, Monday was the day that we created a foreign-currency payment document and issued an order for foreign banks to complete this payment. This payment document will be monitored closely by us to see how the banks execute our orders.

According to the Finance Ministry, payments in Russian rubles will be made if banks are prevented from honoring their debts in the issue currency by sanctions.

Reuters was unable to confirm immediately with bondholders that payment had been made.

Russia holds 15 international bonds, with an outstanding face value around $40 billion. Foreign investors hold around half the bonds.

The trading of Russian assets is almost a halt on all exchanges except Moscow.

Russia’s largest external default occurred over 100 years ago. It was when Bolsheviks didn’t recognize Tsarist loans in the aftermath of 1917 Revolution.