Status: 03/28/2022 15:38
G7 countries have rejected Russian demands that gas bills be paid in rubles. According to Economy Minister Habeck, the G7 energy ministers agree that this requirement represents a violation of existing agreements.
G7 group countries are not willing to pay Russian gas bills in rubles. This was confirmed by the Federal Minister of Economy and Climate Protection, Robert Habeck, after a virtual meeting with the G7 energy ministers.
G7 ministers agreed that Russian demands for payment in rubles were “a clear and unilateral violation of existing treaties”, Habeck said. The contracts concluded are valid, the affected companies must be faithful to the contract. “So that means payment in rubles is not acceptable.”
Currently, Germany presides over the group of states, which includes Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the USA and Great Britain. The EU also participated in the round, Habeck said.
Putin only wants payments in rubles
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week that gas deliveries to “hostile countries” would only be billed in rubles. This would support the troubled Russian currency as importing countries would have to purchase rubles. Russia’s central bank is expected to introduce a new system “within a week”, Putin said. Affected countries include Germany and all other EU countries. Until now, gas deliveries have been paid for in Germany, for example, in euros.
“Putin’s attempt to divide us is obvious,” Habeck said. But there is great unity. “We will not let ourselves be divided, and the response of the G7 countries is clear: the agreements will be observed.”
“They are prepared for all scenarios”
When asked about preparations in the event that Russia cuts off gas supplies, Habeck said: “We are prepared for all scenarios.” The federal government has been working on responses to scenarios since the turn of the year. Putin’s demand for a ruble payment must be interpreted in such a way that he “has his back to the wall, otherwise he would not have made that demand,” Habeck said.
Payments from the West for energy supplies are not decisive for the direct financing of the Russian war against Ukraine. Financing the army, supplying soldiers, supplying fuel for tanks or building weapons of war, Putin can largely do on his own. “He needs rubles for that. He can print the rubles,” Habeck said. “As long as Russian workers accept the ruble as a means of payment, it can finance the war with its own resources.”
However, exchanging rubles into foreign currencies is extremely difficult due to sanctions against the central bank, Habeck said. However, one must become independent from Russia’s gas, coal and oil in order not to strengthen the Russian government or keep it alive. Russia is “an unreliable supplier” and its campaign “has significantly contributed to a global disruption of peace and order”.
Russia threatens to stop deliveries
So far, despite its war of aggression against Ukraine and Western sanctions, Russia has continued to supply gas to Europe unabated. Meanwhile, Moscow apparently wants to replace declining oil supplies to European countries with exports to Asia. There is also a market “in Southeast Asia, in the east,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said before Habeck’s announcement, according to Interfax.
The world market is more diversified than just the European market. “Although, of course, the European market is premium,” admitted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman. Peskov highlighted Russia’s demand that deliveries of natural gas to European countries in future be paid for in rubles. Of course, if Russia refuses, it will not supply Europe with gas “for free”. In the current situation in Russia, this is “hardly possible or sensible”.
With his threat, Peskow reacted to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s (SPD) announcement that Germany’s dependence on Russian energy imports would be eliminated “very quickly”. On the Anne Will ARD program, Scholz said Sunday that Germany could do this quickly with coal and oil.
G7 refuses ruble payments for gas supplies
Philipp Eckstein, ARD Berlin, March 28, 2022 3:14 pm