RTTue, 29 Mar 2022 13:14 UTC
© AFP/Kirill KudryavtsevRuble payment for natural gas to unfriendly countries
The bloc's refusal follows a similar announcement by G7 countries
EU member states won't pay for Russian gas in rubles, the European Commission said on Tuesday, rejecting Moscow's March 31 deadline for switching payment mechanisms. The announcement comes a day after a similar response from the G7 nations.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that
hostile countries, which have imposed economic sanctions on Moscow, pay for Russian gas with rubles. On Monday, he ordered the government to develop the necessary tools to accomplish the task and set a deadline for Thursday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that
Russia will not supply natural gas to the European market for free, as euros and dollars will not be accepted from March 31.
Moscow has indicated that the
new currency-switch rule will affect countries that are waging an economic war against Russia by imposing sanctions and freezing the nation's foreign currency reserves. These will most likely include the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, the EU, and a number of smaller countries.
Comment: 'Threat'eric has increased:
EU now threatens to block Russian oil supplies to Serbia:
Croatian pipeline operator says sanctions don't allow it to provide oil shipments to Serbian oil company owned by Russia's Gazprom. JANAF said it will halt oil supplies to Serbian oil and gas company NIS starting mid-May, due to the latest sanctions introduced by the EU against Russia.
Russia's Gazprom owns a 56.15%-share in NIS, one of the largest oil and gas companies in southeast Europe. The corporation is focused on exploration, production and processing of oil and gas, as well as the production and retail of petroleum products. The Serbian government owns a 29.87% stake in the company.
In January, JANAF signed a crude-oil transportation deal with NIS for 2022. The Serbian company reserved JANAF capacities for transportation of around 3.2 million tons of crude oil for the full year. However, JANAF will be unable to continue transport to Serbia after May 15 under this contract unless EU sanctions on Russian companies are lifted.
One of the sanctioned Russian companies is Gazprom Neft, together with the subsidiaries in which it has more than 50% ownership. The ban on cooperation with Gazprom Neft impacts Serbia because its oil company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) is majority-owned by the Russian company.
The ban implies NIS cannot continue to buy Russian oil from European companies like the big traders such as Glencore and Vitol. However, the new sanctions do not prevent EU members from importing Russian crude.
Comment: 'Threat'eric has increased: EU now threatens to block Russian oil supplies to Serbia: