The country will continue to pay interest on its more than $100 billion in foreign debt.
That left far too little to pay the interest on the $111 billion foreign debt.
By the end of the 1970s, however, the foreign debt had reached high levels.
"And as a result Russia will not be able to pay all of its foreign debt next year."
In 1977, the Republic's foreign debt was about £1 000 million a year.
But adding $20 billion to Iraq's current foreign debt is not the answer.
Latin America has a foreign debt of nearly $400 billion.
The program left Mexico with the world's largest foreign debt.
The central bank's reserves of nearly $80 billion are higher than the country's foreign debt.
Until last year, Iran had no foreign debts at all.