In response to Western amnesty in Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that gas exported to Europe or the United States should be paid for in his own currency, a measure his government has said that could be implemented this week. . Ruble payments could be extended to exports of oil, grain, metals, fertilizers, coal and timber to the European Union, Russia’s top MP Vyacheslav Volodin said on Wednesday. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Asked about Volodymyr’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said: “This is an idea that must work.” Europe has so far refused to pay for gas in rubles, setting the stage for a stalemate that led Germany to issue an “early warning” on Wednesday that it could be heading for a supply emergency. Russia says it will work out practical arrangements by Thursday for foreign companies to pay for gas in their currency. read more “If you want gas, find rubles,” Volodin, the speaker of parliament, told the Telegram. Peshkov said the role of the US dollar as a world reserve currency had already struck in recent years and that a move to price Russia’s largest exports in rubles would be “in our interests and the interests of our partners.” Germany said its early warning measure was designed to prepare for a possible shutdown or cessation of gas supplies from Russia. read more Europe, which imports about 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia and pays mostly in euros, says state-controlled Russian gas giant Gazprom has no right to recover contracts. The G7’s team rejected Moscow’s demands this week. BOOMERANG Russian officials have repeatedly said that the West’s attempt to isolate one of the world’s largest producers of natural resources is an unreasonable act of self-harm that will drive up consumer prices and plunge the economies of Europe and the United States into recession. Russia says Western sanctions – and in particular the freezing of about $ 300 billion in Russian central bank reserves – amount to a declaration of economic war. Putin says the freezing of central bank reserves was a breach of Western obligations to Russia that would torpedo confidence in the dollar and the euro. Former President Dmitry Medvedev said the Western sanctions had “boomeranged” to undermine the economies of Europe and North America, raising fuel and heating prices and undermining confidence in the dollar and the euro. “People are waking up: confidence in reserve currencies is melting like a morning mist,” Medvedev said. “Abandoning the dollar and the euro as the world’s main reserves no longer looks like fantasy.” Medvedev said “crazy politicians” in the West had sacrificed their taxpayers’ money on the altar of an unknown victory in Ukraine. “The age of regional currencies is coming.” Russia has long sought to reduce its dependence on the US dollar, even though its main exports – oil, gas and minerals – are priced in dollars on world markets. Globally, the dollar is by far the most traded currency, followed by the euro, the yen and the pound sterling. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Guy Faulconbridge. Editing by Conor Humphries and Frank Jack Daniel Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
