WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Polish and Bulgarian officials said Tuesday Moscow is halting natural gas supplies to their countries because they refuse to pay in Russian rubles, a demand from President Vladimir Putin after sanctions were imposed on his nation invasion of Ukraine.
Russian state energy giant Gazprom told the two EU and NATO member states that gas supplies will be halted from Wednesday, their governments said.
The suspensions would be the first since Putin’s announcement last month that “unfriendly foreign buyers” would have to deal with Gazprom in rubles instead of dollars and euros. Only Hungary has agreed to this, other countries reject the demand as an unacceptable unilateral breach of contract and violation of sanctions.
Stopping supplies to other countries too could cause economic problems in Europe, driving up natural gas prices and possibly leading to rationing – but it would also deal a blow to Russia’s own economy.
According to Polish state-owned gas company PGNiG, Wednesday’s shutdowns will affect supplies of Russian gas to Poland via the Yamal-Europe pipeline and to Bulgaria via the TurkStream pipeline, according to that country’s Energy Ministry.
Yamal-Europe transports gas from Russia via Belarus to Poland and Germany. Poland receives about 9 billion cubic meters annually, which covers about 45% of the country’s needs.
PGNiG said it is considering legal action over Moscow’s demand for payment.
But Climate Minister Anna Moskva said Poland was ready to settle for that after working to reduce its dependence on Russian energy sources. A few years ago, the country opened its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Świnoujście on the Baltic Sea coast, and a pipeline from Norway is expected to be operational later this year.
“There will be no shortage of gas in Polish households,” Moskva tweeted.
Bulgaria said it was working with state-owned gas companies to find alternative sources and would not impose restrictions on domestic consumption for the time being, although the Balkan country of 6.5 million gets over 90% of its gas needs from Russian imports.
Poland was a strong supporter of neighboring Ukraine during the Russian invasion and acted as a transit point for arms shipped to Kyiv by the United States and other Western nations.
Warsaw said this week that it is also sending weapons to the Ukrainian army in the form of tanks. On Tuesday, she announced sanctions against 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including Gazprom.
Bulgaria, once one of Moscow’s closest allies, severed many of its ties with Russia after a new, liberal government took over the reins last fall, and also in the wake of the invasion. She has supported sanctions against Russia and sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Bulgaria has been reluctant to provide military aid, but Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and members of his coalition government were expected in Kyiv on Wednesday for talks on further aid.
Europe buys large quantities of Russian natural gas for home heating, power generation and the fuel industry, with Germany being particularly dependent on it. Imports continued despite the war.
Around 60% of imports are paid in euros, the rest in dollars. Putin’s demand was apparently intended to help strengthen the Russian currency against Western sanctions.
In Washington, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the US was preparing for such a shutdown by Russia.
“Part of it has asked some countries in Asia that have oversupply to ship to Europe,” Psaki said. “We’ve done that on a couple of occasions and it’s been a continuous effort.”
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Associated Press writers Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
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