Putin wants hostile countries to pay for Russian gas in rubles
23:00
Russia plans to convert gas sales to "hostile" countries into rubles, President Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday. This is supposed to be a response to the freezing of Russia's assets by foreign countries in connection with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Putin announced that the Russian government and the central bank would be given a week to find a solution on how to transfer these operations to the Russian currency and that the gas giant Gazprom would be instructed to make appropriate changes to the gas contracts.
Russia probably hopes that such a step would make the Russian currency appreciate, as international demand for it would increase.
According to Gazprom data, quoted by the Reuters Agency, as of January 27, 58 percent of natural gas sales to Europe and other countries were accounted for in euro. US dollars accounted for about 39 percent of gross sales and pounds sterling about 3 percent.
Russian gas is responsible for around 40 percent of total gas consumption in Europe.
