(Bloomberg) -- Russia defaulted on its external sovereign bonds for the first time in a century, the culmination of ever-tougher Western sanctions that shut down payment routes to overseas creditors.Most Read from BloombergRussia Slips Into Historic Default as Sanctions Muddy Next StepsHyundai Quietly Climbs the EV Sales Charts and Elon Musk NoticesA $2 Trillion Free-Fall Rattles Crypto to the CoreRep. Mary Miller Calls Roe Decision ‘Victory for White Life’Russia Is Hours Away From Its First For

Russian flags flap in the stiff polar breeze, a bust of Lenin looms out of the snow and a vast slogan declares, "Communism is our goal!"