Russia is hitting pause on any new government borrowing owing to what finance minister Anton Siluanov told local media was a “cosmic” rise in debt servicing costs following war-related Western sanctions on Moscow. Siluanov told the Izvestia news outlet in an interview on Monday that Russia will halt all government bond auctions for the rest of 2022. “We do not plan to go to the local market or foreign markets this year,” Siluanov told Izvestia. “It makes no sense because the borrowing cost would be cosmic.” In a wide-ranging interview, Siluanov said that recent changes to Russia’s budget policy mean that all revenue streams, including from sales of oil and gas, can be used to pay down its domestic and foreign debt and so the country doesn’t need to borrow at this time. ITI Capital analysts told Reuters that Russia receives about $1.4 billion a day in export revenues. Siluanov added …