Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree according to which the calculations for gas supplies “unfriendly countries” will be carried out for rubles. New rules for the sale of gas will begin to act on April 1. The authorized bank for calculations was Gazprombank. If “unfriendly countries” will not pay in rubles, “the existing contracts will be stopped,” Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on aircraft, reports Kommersant.
The head of the Russian state explained that Russia “delivered gas to Western partners. “They got it, paid us in the euro, which they themselves were frozen,” said the president.
“We can assume that we put gas actually for free,” he explained why he signed a decree. According to Putin, the decision on the procedure for payment of gas supplies in rubles is a step towards the financial sovereignty of the Russian Federation.