European importers of Russian natural gas have until at least the second half of April to comply with Moscow’s demand that they pay in roubles, the Kremlin said, as buyers struggle to understand their obligations.
“Payment for the actual deliveries that are going on now does not need to be made today,” said Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, on Friday, the day after Russia published a decree on rouble payments.
‘It should be made somewhere . . . in the second half of the month of April, or even at the beginning of May.”
His comments eased fears that Russia could immediately shut off supplies to any buyer that did not offer roubles. But Europe still faces the threat of Moscow halting deliveries and starving parts of the continent of energy at a later date.
Multiple European buyers have so far refused to pay in roubles, saying that Russia’s demand breaches the terms of their purchase contracts.
A senior EU diplomat said the bloc was “still somewhat puzzled” by the
Kremlin’s decree.
“Nobody fully understands what [President] Vladimir Putin’s intentions are — are they to split the EU, to circumvent sanctions, to reinforce the rouble, or to scare the markets and make the gas price go even higher?” the diplomat said. ‘It seems very likely that even people inside the Russian administration don’t know about the edict’s objectives. ”
Russia proposed a mechanism that would require gas buyers to open bank accounts both in foreign currency and roubles at Gazprombank — which is not subject to EU sanctions — in order to buy roubles to use for payment. It said doing so would not violate contracts or change volume or pricing terms.
Putin signed the rouble decree on Thursday. It applies to “unfriendly” countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, including EU members.
If payments were not made, Putin said, “we will consider this a default on the part of the buyers — with all the ensuing consequences”.