[이데일리 이연호 기자] As Russia has stopped supplying natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria, 10 European companies have started paying in rubles to purchase Russian gas, Bloomberg News reported on the 27th (local time).
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At Russian request, these companies have paid or opened Russian accounts for natural gas payments in the Russian currency, the ruble.
Bloomberg reported that four European companies had already paid Russian state gas company Gazprom in the Russian ruble, citing an anonymous source.
At least a dozen European companies have opened accounts with Russia’s state-owned bank, Gazprom, to meet Russia’s ruble payment requirements. The source said that the next payment date is after the 15th of next month.
As a result, even if Russia stops supplying natural gas to other European countries after Poland and Bulgaria, that will be after mid-May, the source said.
Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom announced on the same day that it had completely stopped supplying natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria. Gazprom said the two countries did not pay their gas bills in rubles and said they would continue to suspend supply until they agree to a ruble settlement. This is the first time Russia has stopped supplying gas to a European country since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The move has boosted European gas prices by more than 20%, Bloomberg reported.
Earlier, Russia designated countries participating in Western sanctions against the invasion of Ukraine as ‘non-friendly countries’ and unilaterally demanded that these countries pay for gas in rubles.
Russia is also warning other European countries that it could take steps to halt gas supplies until they agree to a ruble settlement.
“It is necessary to do the same with other countries unfriendly to Russia,” Vyacheslav Volodin, the Speaker of the Russian House of Representatives, said in a post on his Telegram channel on the same day.
