Russia's economy is looking good. A year of 7 percent growth and high oil prices have provided a much needed windfall for the country. By all appearances, then, it is the wrong time to pick a fight with the West. But the government of President Vladimir Putin seems to be doing just that. It is a pointless exercise: Russia needs the West. Arguing over debts it can afford to repay is no way to get its help.
The debt in question is left over from the former Soviet Union. Russia assumed the $38.7 billion debt that the communist state owed members of the Paris Club of creditor nations. (Russia's total obligation to the Paris Club now totals $48.3 billion.) Some $3.5 billion in Soviet-era debt is supposed to be repaid this year.
At first, Moscow said it would pay only $300 million in interest payments this year. Then it paid just $31.5 million of the $316.4 million that was due to the Paris Club and claimed that it would seek to restructure the rest. That strategy has divided the government.