OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on Russian cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Tatarstan Republic, Tyumen Region and Khanty-Mansyisk Autonomous Region to Negative from Stable.

The agency has affirmed the five local and regional governments' Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs). The issue ratings on Moscow's and Saint Petersburg's senior unsecured local currency bonds have also been affirmed.

Under EU credit rating agency (CRA) regulation, the publication of International Public Finance reviews is subject to restrictions and must take place according to a published schedule, except where it is necessary for CRAs to deviate from this in order to comply with their legal obligations.

Fitch interprets this provision as allowing us to publish a rating review in situations where there is a material change in the creditworthiness of the issuer that we believe makes it inappropriate for us to wait until the next scheduled review date to update the rating or Outlook/Watch status.

The next scheduled review date for Fitch's rating on Khanty-Mansyisk Autonomous Region was 4 April 2014, for the City of Saint Petersburg 23 May 2014, for Tatarstan Republic 25 July 2014, and for the City of Moscow and Tyumen Region was 6 June 2014. However, following the recent Outlook revision of Russia (see Fitch Revises Russia's Outlook to Negative; Affirms at 'BBB' dated 21 March 2014 at www.fitchratings.com) we have taken a similar rating action on these issuers as they are rated at the same level as the sovereign.

The revision of Outlook of the City of Moscow, the City Saint Petersburg, Tatarstan Republic, Tyumen Region and Khanty-Mansyisk Autonomous Region reflects the application of Fitch's 'International Local and Regional Governments Rating Criteria outside United States'. Under our criteria, a local or regional government can be rated above the sovereign only in exceptional circumstances.

A downgrade of Russian Federation would lead to a downgrade of the issuers.