On Thursday, Putin again threatened to stop deliveries if gas was not paid for in rubles from Friday. However, a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday night shows how Russia envisions the solution to the situation.
At the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian central bank is due to present in detail this Thursday how its request for payment for gas deliveries to Europe is to be carried out in the future. In the afternoon, Putin spoke. He reiterated that from Friday, April 1, foreign gas buyers will have to pay in rubles. If this does not happen, the supply contracts would be interrupted. “To buy Russian gas, they need to open ruble accounts with Russian banks. Deliveries will be paid with these bills from tomorrow,” Putin said.
“If there are no such payments, we see this as a default on the part of the buyer, with all its consequences. Nobody sells us anything for free, so we’re not going to do it ourselves.”
In a public conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz late on Wednesday, Putin confirmed that gas deliveries would have to be paid for in rubles from April 1. At the same time, the Russian president also assured that European companies can continue to pay their Russian gas bills in euros. Payments would therefore be transferred as usual to Gazprom Bank, which is unaffected by the sanctions. The bank then converts the money into rubles and sends it to Russia.