European buyers spurn Putin's call for ruble gas payments
A number of European countries that import Russian gas have said they will refuse to pay for supplies in rubles, as demanded by Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier this week.
Putin said on March 23 that Russia would demand "unfriendly" countries pay for Russian gas in rubles, causing a spike in European gas prices. The move is a response to unprecedented economic sanctions that have been levelled against Russia by the EU, the US and the UK, which the Kremlin has described as akin to a declaration of war.
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German chancellor Olaf Scholz noted on March 24 that most existing gas purchase agreements between Russia and its foreign buyers required payments in either euros and US dollars.
"We've looked at this to try to get an overview. What we have learned so far is that there are fixed contracts everywhere, which include the currency in which payments are made," Scholz told reporters, according to Politico. "And most of the time it says euro or dollar ... and that's what counts then."
German economy minister Robert Habeck said that demanding ruble payments would be a breach of contract. "We will now discuss with our European partners how we would react to that," he said.
Germany is the biggest buyer of Russian gas in Europe, with Gazprom typically delivering around two thirds of the country's gas. Russia covers around a third of gas demand in Poland, whose state gas import monopoly PGNiG has also said it will not pay for supplies in rubles.
"We don't see how we could," the Polish PAP news agency quoted PGNiG head Pawel Majewski as saying on March 24. "The contract ... sets the means of payment. It does not allow one party to modify this according to its will."
The CEO of Austria's OMV, Alfred Stern, has also said its contract with Gazprom does not allow for ruble payments. Lithuania's Latvijas Gaze has said the same, while Lithuania's Ignitis Group has said it is stopping gas purchases from Gazprom altogether, and so the issue is irrelevant. Neighbouring Estonia is calling for the EU to place part of the payments for Russian gas and oil in an escrow account that can later be used to rebuild Ukraine.