Moody's downgrade politically-motivated: Russian officials

Russian Finance Minister said Saturday that Moody's Investors Service's downgrade of Russia's credit rating was politically-motivated.

"I suspect that the agency's decision to lower the rating was based on political factors," said Anton Siluanov.

Earlier Saturday, the international rating agency slashed Russia's credit rating from Baa3 to Ba1, the junk status, citing the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine and the slump of global oil prices.

"I believe that Moody's rating is not just overly negative, but also based on an extremely pessimistic forecast," the minister was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.

Alexey Pushkov, chairman of the Russian State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee, also saw political motives behind the rating agency's decision.

"It looks so politically charged that it is not trustworthy," said Pushkov.

Meanwhile, the Russian Finance Ministry denied that the revision would cause significant impact on the country's capital market.

"We believe that the agency's decision is unlikely to cause any extra major effect on the capital market. For participants in the domestic money market, the issuer's foreign currency-related rating is of smaller importance," said a statement from the ministry.

Moody's is the second world rating agency that has downgraded Russia's credit rating to the junk level. Last month, Standard & Poor's cut its rating on Russia from BBB- to BB+ with a negative outlook.

The Russian economy has suffered a lot due to the mounting pressure from Western sanctions and global plummet of oil prices. The Russian government published a 38-page anti-crisis plan late January in order to deal with the current unfavorable economic conditions. Endi