Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that “hostile” countries, including all EU members, will have to open accounts in rubles to pay for gas deliveries from April. Western countries have racked up crippling sanctions against Moscow since it moved troops to Ukraine, including freezing its foreign exchange reserves. While the United States has banned the import of Russian oil and gas, the European Union, which received around 40% of its gas supplies from Russia in 2021, has suspended deliveries from Moscow. “They need to open ruble accounts in Russian banks. It is from these accounts that payments for gas delivered from tomorrow, April 1 will be made,” Putin told a televised government meeting. He announced that he had signed a decree which describes the “clear and transparent” process. “If such payments are not made, we will consider this as a breach of our buyers’ obligations with all the ensuing consequences,” Putin said. “No one sells us anything for free and we will not do charity work. This means existing contracts are terminated ‘if payments are not made,’ he added. According to the executive order , all payments will be handled by Russian bank Gazprom, a subsidiary of state-owned energy giant Gazprom.Buyers will transfer payments to a foreign currency account of Gazprombank, which the bank will then convert into rubles and transfer to the buyer’s ruble account.
