In order to comply with the demand of the Russian authorities, they will have to open ruble accounts with Gazprombank in Switzerland.
Gas distributors in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia intend to open ruble accounts with Gazprombank in Switzerland to comply with the Russian authorities’ demand that gas payments be made in its own currency. This is reported by the Financial Times newspaper.
According to the publication, among those companies that are going to buy blue fuel from the Russian Federation for rubles are the two largest importers of Russian gas: Uniper from Dusseldorf (Germany) and OMV from Vienna (Austria).
On the eve it became known that Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer decided to agree to the demand of the Russian side to pay Gazprom gas in rubles. It was noted that the decision was made in agreement with the Austrian company OMV involved in the Nord Stream 2 construction project.
The other day, Gazprom completely stopped gas supplies to Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and PGNiG (Poland). This decision, said in a message from Gazprom, was made “due to non-payment in rubles.” Gazprom also issued a warning that in the event of unauthorized withdrawal of Russian gas from transit volumes to third countries, transit supplies will be reduced by this volume.
Recall that on March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree concerning gas trade with “unfriendly” countries for Russian rubles. As the head of state said at the time, the existing contracts for the supply of gas will be stopped if its European buyers do not fulfill the requirement in question.
According to the decree, in order to pay for gas, Western countries will be required to open ruble accounts with Gazprombank, which did not fall under the sanctions. The bank will sell the currency, which will be credited by buyers of Russian gas. Moscow will regard as a breach of contracts the refusal of gas buyers from “unfriendly” countries to pay for it in rubles.
