Russia edges closer to first debt default in 100 years as US cuts off its ability to pay creditors 

Moscow is edging closer to defaulting on its national debt for the first time since the Bolshevik coup more than a century ago after the US cut off its ability to pay creditors today.

The Treasury Department said in a notification that it does not plan to renew the license that allowed Russia to keep paying its debtholders through American banks, making a Russian default all but inevitable.

Since the first rounds of sanctions, the Treasury Department has given banks a license to process any…