Russia will allow “unfriendly” countries to pay debt settlements for natural-gas supplies in a foreign currency, according to changes made by President Vladimir Putin to an earlier decree.
The document, published on December 30 on the Russian government’s website of legal information, says Russian natural-gas suppliers can make settlements with buyers from “unfriendly” countries in the foreign currency specified in the contract.
The debt for gas supply will be considered repaid after the funds of the foreign buyer have been credited to an authorized bank where a special account has been opened for the purpose of receiving the payments.
Putin signed the decree on payments for Russian natural gas in March, forcing "unfriendly" European customers to open ruble bank accounts with Gazprombank and pay in rubles if they wanted to continue receiving Russian gas. That decree only concerned deliveries from Gazprom.
Supplies were subsequently cut off to some companies and countries, such as Poland and Finland, that refused the terms of the decree, which was seen as a means to spur demand for rubles after the United States and the European Union implemented stiff economic sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Putin's decree meant that buyers of Russian gas in Europe -- all EU countries were included in the "unfriendly" category -- had to buy rubles on the Russian market to pay for supplies.
The president defended the policy by saying that Western countries had “canceled the confidence in its currencies" by imposing sanctions on Russia for the war against Ukraine.
The change announced on December 30 to allow debt settlement does not automatically mean the resumption of gas supplies, according to the information published.
Putin previously ordered the central bank and the government to develop "the order of transactions for the purchase of rubles on the domestic market of the Russian Federation by gas buyers."
