Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday that he had signed a decree requiring buyers from “unfriendly” foreign countries to pay in rubles for natural gas deliveries from Friday, and providing for the suspension of current contracts if they do not comply.
Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday that buyers of Russian gas from “unfriendly” countries will have to pay in rubles from accounts in Russia from Friday on pain of being deprived of supplies, a measure mainly affecting the European Union. However, the price of gas remains denominated in the currency of the current contracts, usually in euros or dollars.
” They must open ruble accounts in Russian banks. And from these accounts they will have to pay for the gas delivered and that tomorrow “Vladimir Putin declared on television after signing a decree to this effect. He added that in case of refusal, “ current contracts will be terminated “. ” If these payments are not made, it will be considered as a breach of obligations on the part of the buyer, and this will have all the necessary consequences. “, insisted the Russian president.
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He recalled that this measure was a response to the freezing of some 300 billion dollars of foreign currency reserves that Russia had abroad, a sanction decided by the West in retaliation for the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
Moscow published a list of “unfriendly” countries in early March, which includes the United States, members of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan, South Korea, Norway and Australia.
Berlin and Paris categorically refuse to pay in rubles
Germany and France prepare to a potential halt to Russian gas imports, the governments of the two countries said, which also reiterated their opposition to any payment in rubles for deliveries. “ There may be a situation in which tomorrow (…) there will be no more russian gas “, and ” it is up to us to prepare these scenarios, and we prepare them French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said during a press conference with German Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
Berlin and Paris have at the same time reiterated their refusal to pay in rubles for deliveries of Russian gas, as requested by Vladimir Putin. “ It is written in the contracts that the payments are made in euros and sometimes in dollars “, has explained German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a separate press conference also held in Berlin on Thursday. “ I made it clear to the Russian president that it will stay that way” and “companies want to be able to pay in euros and will “, he added.
“ The contracts provide for a currency in which they are executed and therefore the contracts must be executed in the currency provided “, hammered for his part Bruno Le Maire. “ Contracts are contracts “, he added.