“They will have to open ruble accounts in Russian banks. Payments for the gas that will be delivered from tomorrow, April 1, will be made from these accounts,” Putin told a government meeting.
Without that condition, “existing contracts will be suspended,” warned the president, recalling that the measure is a response to the blockade of 300,000 million dollars of foreign exchange reserves that Russia had abroad, decided by Western powers in retaliation for the offensive in Ukraine.
“Nobody gives us anything. We are not going to do charity either. If there are no payments, the contracts are suspended,” he emphasized.
“We delivered our resources to European consumers, in this case gas. They received the gas, paid us in euros and then froze those payments. We have grounds to consider that part of the gas has been delivered to Europe, in fact, for free,” he added.
This announcement is highly sensitive for the EU, which imports 90% of the gas it needs, with Russia being its largest supplier with 40% of shipments.
One of the most affected countries is Germanywhich imports 55% of the gas it consumes from Russia and which it needs, among other issues, to keep the largest European economy operational.
That is why one of the first to react was the German chancellor, Olaf Scholzwho assured that both his country and the rest of the bloc will continue to pay for the supply in euros and dollars.
“It is written in the contracts that payments are made in euros and sometimes in dollars,” Scholz explained at a press conference with his Austrian counterpart, Karl Nehammer.
“I clearly told the Russian president that things will continue like this,” he added, quoted by the AFP news agency, referring to a telephone conversation he had yesterday with Putin.
The French Economy Minister, Bruno LeMaireasked to anticipate the scenario in which there will be no more imports from Russia:
For his part, the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, considered that the Kremlin “declared war on gas” with his announcement.
“The West must now respond as harshly as possible, abandoning Russia’s energy resources,” he urged, according to local news agency Ukrinform.
European stock markets also reacted to Putin’s announcement and closed lower, worried about an immediate cut in gas supplies.
The Dax index in Frankfurt lost 1.31%, Madrid’s Ibex 35 lost 1.23% and in Paris the CAC 40 fell 1.21%. In Milan the decline was 1.10% and in London 0.83%.
The Russian state company Gazprom has been reporting that so far it maintains the same level of shipments to Europe, but the countries of that continent are looking for alternative suppliers, such as qatarwhich has already signed an agreement to supply gas to Germany, or the USA which increased its shipment of liquefied natural gas to Europe.
This search for other markets and mainly the uncertainty about production in the midst of the war and the sanctions triggered the price of gas and also of oil, of which Russia is also one of the main world exporters.
Faced with this game of supply and demand, the president of the United States Joe Biden announced the release of one million barrels per day of its strategic reserves for six months in an attempt to reduce its price.
Source: Ambito
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