Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree Friday afternoon allowing Russian natural gas suppliers to settle their debts to «unfriendly countries» in foreign currencies.
The decree specifies that settlements of doubt can be made in foreign currency, using a special account opened by an authorized bank, and that it will not be necessary to make the payment in rubles, as the Kremlin had determined in early April, TASS has reported.
However, the decree only refers to «repayment of the foreign buyer’s debt» with no plans to resume natural gas supplies from Russia to «unfriendly countries».
Since April 1, Russia’s «unfriendly» countries, such as members of the European Union or the United States, could only pay for Russian gas in rubles, according to the agency.
However, taking into account the currency of the contracts (which are usually dollars and euros), Moscow made a concession to its counterparties: customers would have to transfer money in foreign currencies to Gazprombank, which would buy rubles on the exchanges and transfer them to special ruble accounts.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned companies buying gas from Russia that if they gave in to the Kremlin’s «blackmail» of paying in rubles for supplies when it is not foreseen in their purchase contracts it would be «a violation of the sanctions that the European Union imposes on Vladimir Putin’s regime» and could have legal consequences for the companies.
Later, the European Commission allowed the companies to continue paying for Russian gas by opening bank accounts for payments in the currency stipulated in the contracts.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
