Free Republic

TROSTYANETS/LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin threatened on Thursday to halt contracts supplying Europe with a third of its gas unless they are paid in roubles, his strongest economic riposte so far to crushing Western sanctions over his invasion of Ukraine. The continent’s biggest recipient of Russian gas, Germany, called the ultimatum for Friday “blackmail”. But Moscow did offer a mechanism for buyers to obtain roubles by sending foreign currency to a Russian bank. The energy showdown has huge ramifications. Europe wants to wean itself off Russian energy but that risks further inflating soaring fuel prices. Russia has...

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin threatened on Thursday to halt contracts supplying Europe with a third of its gas unless they are paid in roubles, his strongest economic riposte so far to crushing Western sanctions over his invasion of Ukraine....But Moscow did offer a mechanism for buyers to obtain roubles by sending foreign currency to a Russian bank....They must open rouble accounts in Russian banks. It is from these accounts that payments will be made for gas delivered starting from tomorrow,” he said on Thursday, adding that Europe had until now been getting some gas for free because it was paying...

Saddam, Gaddafi, Iran, Venezuela – they all tried but couldn’t do it. But Russia is on a different level altogether. The beauty of the game-changing, gas-for-rubles, geoeconomic jujitsu applied by Moscow is its stark simplicity. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s presidential decree on new payment terms for energy products, predictably, was misunderstood by the collective west. The Russian government is not exactly demanding straightforward payment for gas in rubles. What Moscow wants is to be paid at Gazprombank in Russia, in its currency of choice, and not at a Gazprom account in any banking institution in western capitals. That’s the essence...