(Finance) – The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, signed the presidential decree on the rules of the trade in Russian natural gas with the so-called hostile countries for payment in rubles.
This was announced by the Russian leader himself, adding that the gas payment in rubles is a step towards the financial sovereignty of Russia and that “Western countries will have to open a ruble account with Russian banks to pay for gas” with Russian currency. “If the payments are not made in rubles, the existing contracts will be terminated – he specified – no one sells us anything for free, and we won’t even do charity works. This means that existing contracts, in the event of non-payment of gas in rubles, will be terminated “.
However, the decree, according to what Tass reports, provides for the possibility that some payments will not be made in Moscow currency. It will be up to the government commission that oversees foreign investment to identify cases in which payment not in rubles will be authorized. The head of the Kremlin also stated that “the US tries to solve its own problems at the expense of others. Their mistakes in the economic field try to dump them on us. They try to push. Europe to buy American gas, which is more expensive “than Russian gas.
Putin also returned to talk about the sanctions still defined “illegitimate” because “they have been introduced for many years now to weaken thel productive and financial potential of our country, previously prepared and that would have been introduced in any case “.
Reactions from European leaders came immediately. “We looked at the contracts, it says that you pay in euros. And I made it clear in the phone call that it will stay that way. Businesses will be able to pay, they will want to pay and they will pay in euros”: the German Chancellor reiterated. Olaf Scholz. The same concept reaffirmed during the Berlin press conference by the French Minister of Economy, Bruno La Maire, and the German one, Robert Habeck: both stressed that they will not accept “in any way to pay for gas in other currencies than those stipulated in the contractsi “. The governments of France and Germany, they said,” will coordinate closely and daily “and that there could be a situation in which tomorrow, under special circumstances, there will be no more Russian gas. It is up to us to prepare these scenarios and we are preparing “.