Putin Allows Foreign Gas Buyers to Pay Debts in Foreign Currency

(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin allowed natural-gas buyers from “unfriendly” countries to pay debts for fuel in foreign currency, partly lifting a requirement for ruble-only payments.

Repayment of debt doesn’t provide grounds for a resumption of Russian gas supplies to buyers that don’t comply with other requirements of a presidential decree issued earlier this year, according to amendments published late Friday.

Putin shocked the European gas market at the end of March by signing a decree that ordered a full switch to ruble payments for Russian pipeline gas amid the Kremlin’s standoff with the western nations over the invasion of Ukraine. 

Russian gas giant Gazprom PJSC halted gas supplies to clients in Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as supplies to Germany under a contract with Shell Energy Europe, after companies refused to comply with the decree. Other European companies opened special ruble and foreign-currency accounts at Gazprombank JSC, which was authorized to handle payments for natural gas. 

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