Moscow, Safar 27, 1439, November 16, 2017, SPA -- Russia and Venezuela signed a deal on Wednesday for Moscow to restructure 3.15 billion dollars of Venezuelan debt, as the crisis-hit South American country teeters towards default, according to dpa. Cash-strapped Venezuela insisted earlier this week that it was continuing to uphold its obligations to bondholders after global financial ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the country's credit rating to "selective default." Venezuela said on Wednesday that it had started paying nearly 200 million dollars in interest on 2019 and 2024 sovereign debt bonds. The state petrol company PDVSA also said it had paid delayed interest on its 2027 bond. The Finance Ministry slammed Standard & Poor's as an "agent of imperial aggression" and accused it of "financially persecuting" Venezuela. The ratings agency on Tuesday assessed the chances of Venezuela defaulting again within a three-month grace period at 50 per cent, which would result in a "default" rating. Russia's Finance Ministry said in a statement that it was providing a lifeline to increase the chances that all of Venezuela's creditors would be paid back. Long-time allies, Venezuela and Russia have both experienced economic hardship in recent years as the price of their number one export, oil, plummeted amid a global supply glut. Venezuela has been in a recession since 2014, and is currently in the throes of both an economic and political crisis. --SPA 02:54 LOCAL TIME 23:54 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w538256