Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he has decided to implement measures to convert tariffs on gas supplies to non-aligned countries into Russian rubles.
He said the changes were ordered to take effect within a week.
He said the government and the central bank would have a week to come up with a solution on how to move these measures to the Russian currency and would be ordered to make relevant changes to the gas agreements.
Western nations have announced sanctions against Russia in protest of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russia announced a list of allied countries. The list includes the United States, EU member states, Britain, Japan, Canada, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Despite the announcement of sanctions on Russian gas, many European countries continue to import oil from Moscow via Ukraine.
In this context, Putin’s announcement that only the ruble will be accepted for gas sales is expected to hit Europe hard.