Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the resulting international sanctions have triggered fears of a potential debt default by Moscow, something which economist William Jackson says is unlikely. A Russian default will likely be “symbolic” and not have any significant consequences within Russia or elsewhere, Jackson, the chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, said in a note. A potential Russian default has largely been “priced in” by foreign investors. Nonresidents only hold around $20 billion in Russian foreign currency sovereign debt, which he considers “relatively small.” “Even if the government halts payments to foreign investors on all their holdings of sovereign debt (local and foreign), the total of around $70 [billion] is no larger than the debt Argentina defaulted on in 2020 without causing tremors in global markets (although in Argentina’s case, bond prices didn’t fall quite as far),” Jackson said. However, the economist foresees two risks. The first is …