Russian president says government and central bank had one week to come up with a solution
\nMOSCOW
\nRussia plans to switch its gas sales to \u201cunfriendly\u201d countries to roubles, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, responding to a freeze on Russia\u2019s assets by foreign nations over events in Ukraine that he said had destroyed Moscow\u2019s trust.
\nEuropean countries\u2019 dependence on Russian gas and other exports has been thrown into the spotlight since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it called a special operation to degrade its southern neighbour\u2019s military capabilities and root out people it called dangerous nationalists.
\n\u201cRussia will continue, of course, to supply natural gas in accordance with volumes and prices … fixed in previously concluded contracts,\u201d Putin said at a televised meeting with top government ministers. \u201cThe changes will only affect the currency of payment, which will be changed to Russian roubles,\u201d he said.
\nPutin said the government and central bank had one week to come up with a solution on how to move these operations to the Russian currency and that gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) would be ordered to make the corresponding changes to gas contracts.
\nAccording to Gazprom, 58% of its sales of natural gas to Europe and other countries as of Jan. 27 were settled in euros. U.S. dollars accounted for about 39% of gross sales and sterling around 3%.
\nRussian gas accounts for some 40% of Europe\u2019s total gas consumption.
\n\u201cAn understandable and transparent procedure of making payments should be created for (all foreign buyers), including acquiring Russian roubles on our domestic currency market,\u201d Putin said.
\nUkrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance to Russia\u2019s actions and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an effort to force it to withdraw its forces.
\nRussia has drawn up a list of \u201cunfriendly\u201d countries, which corresponds to those that imposed sanctions. Among other things, deals with companies and individuals from those countries have to be approved by a government commission.
\nThe list of countries includes the United States, European Union member states, Britain, Japan, Canada, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russian president says government and central bank had one week to come up with a solution MOSCOW Russia plans to switch its gas sales to \u201cunfriendly\u201d countries to roubles, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, responding to a freeze on Russia\u2019s assets by foreign nations over events in Ukraine that he said had destroyed Moscow\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-250945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n