The Europeans refuse any payment in rubles demanded by Moscow.
Moscow’s demand for payment of its gas in rubles should not generate “a priori of rupture“Deliveries, said Friday the French Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili.
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«The information we have received from Moscow in recent days and hours tends to lead us to believe that companies will be able to continue to pay in euros to banks which, themselves, will have to convert their euros into rubles, and in particular Gazprom Bank,she said, responding to the Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly. “From the moment companies pay in euros, the contracts are respected and therefore it does not change much for our companies. So at this stage we have no risk of breach of these contracts if this solution is the solution implemented. And therefore a priori no rupture that could be initiated from Russian gas imports“, she added.
«Finally, this payment in rubles, I believe it is a support measure for the ruble above all, but it is not really a retaliatory measure vis-à-vis European companies“, she said again, even if “this does not prevent us from working to be less and less dependent on Russian gas imports“. The Europeans refuse any payment in rubles demanded by Moscow. “From our point of view, imposing payment in rubles would constitute a breach of most contracts: the contracts signed by French companies, in particular with Gazprom, are denominated in euros and therefore companies are legitimate to refuse a change of currency“, said the minister on Friday. “The Russian central bank can set the exchange rate it wants, which would amount to fixing gas prices unilaterally, and would consist of a diversion of sanctions, which obviously is not acceptable.“, she added.
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