After announcing on March 23 that Russia would no longer accept payments in euros or dollars, Russia was reassuring on Wednesday, assuring that the application of this measure would be gradual.
After the concern aroused by Russia’s announcement to no longer accept payments in euros or dollars, Vladimir Putin wanted to be reassuring on Wednesday. German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said the Russian president had assured German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that payments from Europe next month “would continue to be in euros and transferred as usual to la Gazprom Bank which is not subject to sanctions”and that she would take care of the conversion into rubles.
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Earlier in the day, Vladimir Putin also told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that paying in rubles for Russian gas exports should not disadvantage European customers. “This decision must not lead to a deterioration of the conditions of the contracts of the European companies which import Russian gas“, he estimated, according to a press release from the Kremlin summarizing a telephone exchange with Olaf Scholz, whose country is a major consumer of Russian hydrocarbons.
On March 23, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would no longer accept payments in dollars or euros for gas deliveries to the EU, in response to Western sanctions taken against Moscow for its offensive in Ukraine. “This change in the procedure of settlements takes place because the members of the EU have frozen the currency reserves of the Bank of Russia, in violation of international lawVladimir Putin told Olaf Scholz on Wednesday.
A gradual changeover to the ruble
Thursday, the Central Bank and the Russian government, as well as the company Gazprom, must present a new system of payment in rubles. Also wanting to be reassuring, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that this transition to payment in Russian currency would be done gradually. “We already talked about it, payment and delivery (of gas) is a long process“, he said, during a press briefing. He assured that this new system would not fully come into force on Thursday with new rules for European consumers. “We’re not talking about delivering tomorrow and getting paid in the evening. No, it’s a longer process, technically“, he stressed, while insisting that Vladimir Putin’s order had to be “appliqué».
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Like Vladimir Putin last week, Dmitry Peskov hinted that other exports could be affected by ruble payments. “This is an idea that of course must be studiedDmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, answering a question about the possibility that this measure would apply in particular to Russian exports of cereals, coal, oil and wood.