Russia should work on ruble payments for oil grain and

Russia should work on ruble payments for oil, grain and metals, Kremlin says

  • Find rubles if you want Russian gas – legislators
  • Narrator: The West should pay rubles for oil, grain, metals
  • Germany warns of gas supply disruption
  • Russia wants to work out the ruble payment system by Thursday
  • Medvedev: Boomerang with sanctions against West

LONDON, March 30 – The Kremlin said on Wednesday that requiring payments in rubles for exports of oil, grain, fertilizers, coal, metals and other key commodities in addition to natural gas was a good idea and should be worked on .

In response to the crippling Western sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted that natural gas exported to Europe or the United States should be paid for in his country’s currency, a measure his government said his government would not allow could come into effect this week.

Ruble payments could be extended to oil, grain, metals, fertilizer, coal and timber exports to the European Union, Russia’s top lawmaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Wednesday

Asked about Volodin’s statements, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This is an idea that definitely needs to be worked on.”

Europe has so far refused to pay for gas in rubles, setting the stage for a standoff that prompted Germany on Wednesday to declare an “early warning” that it could be heading for a supply emergency.

Russia says it will make practical arrangements by Thursday to allow foreign companies to pay for gas in its currency. Continue reading

“If you want gasoline, you can find rubles,” Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, said in a post on Telegram.

Peskov said the US dollar’s role as a global reserve currency has already taken a hit in recent years and a move to price Russia’s biggest exports in rubles would be “in our interests and in the interests of our partners.”

Germany said its early warning measure was designed to prepare for a possible disruption or disruption to natural gas flows from Russia. Continue reading

Europe, which imports about 40% of its gas from Russia and pays mostly in euros, says Russia’s state-controlled gas giant Gazprom does not have the right to renegotiate contracts. The G7 group of states this week rejected Moscow’s demands.

BOOMERANG

Russian officials have repeatedly said that the West’s attempt to isolate one of the world’s largest producers of natural resources is an irrational act of self-harm that will lead to rising consumer prices and plunge the economies of Europe and the United States into recession.

Russia says the West’s sanctions — and specifically the freeze on some $300 billion in Russian central bank reserves — amount to a declaration of economic war.

Putin says the freeze on central bank reserves is a Western default on Russia, which would torpedo confidence in the US dollar and euro.

Former President Dmitry Medvedev said that West’s sanctions had “boomeranged” to undermine the economies of Europe and North America, raising fuel and heating prices and eroding confidence in the dollar and euro.

“The world is waking up: Confidence in reserve currencies is melting like a morning mist,” Medvedev said. “Abandoning the dollar and euro as the world’s main reserves no longer looks like a fantasy.”

Medvedev said “crazy politicians” in the West sacrificed their taxpayers’ money on the altar of an unknown victory in Ukraine. “The era of regional currencies is coming.”

Russia has long sought to reduce dependence on the US dollar, even though its main exports – oil, gas and metals – are traded in dollars on world markets.

Globally, the dollar is by far the most traded currency, followed by the euro, yen and pound sterling.

Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Edited by Conor Humphries and Frank Jack Daniel