He defends that the contracts, which establish their payment in euros or dollars, must be respected
The European Union on Tuesday rejected the Kremlin’s demand to pay in rubles for gas supplied by Russian suppliers. The decision was agreed unanimously among the G7 leaders in response to the demand of President Vladimir Putin, who asked European countries last week to pay for this energy in rubles.
The response from the G7 energy ministers and the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, has been forceful. They point out that the gas supply contracts signed with Russian companies specify that payment must be made in euros or dollars and that they must be respected. They will therefore ask the companies not to accede to the Russian demands.
Germany, one of the European powers most dependent on this supply, was also firm. His Economy Minister, Robert Habeck, said in a statement that Putin’s request constitutes “a unilateral and clear breach of the treaties.” According to him he said, the G7 and the EU see “no reason” to deviate from the conditions set out in the contracts and consider that the demand for payment in rubles has “no legal basis”.
After the start of the war in Ukraine, Moscow assured that it will continue to supply gas according to the agreed volumes and prices, although it expressed its intention to change the currency of payment to all those States that have established sanctions against the country. The extent to which the Kremlin will take action remains unknown, but on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov warned that Russia will not supply gas “out of charity” to “hostile” countries that do not want to pay in rubles.
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