Photo: Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via APOn Wednesday, shortly after 4 a.m., the flow of gas through the "Jamal" gas pipeline was interrupted. Gazprom turned off the faucet for Poland and Bulgaria on April 27, as it had announced. Both countries refused to pay bills in rubles, which Moscow demanded
Russian state energy concern Gazprom suspended gas deliveries to Bulgaria and Poland on Wednesday.
Bulgaria met over 90 percent of its needs by importing Russian gas. However, the government in Sofia claims that for now there will be no restrictions on gas supply for private households. In June, Bulgaria is scheduled to be connected to the gas pipeline that runs through neighboring Greece. Bulgarian state radio reported that gas storage facilities are 20 percent full.
Until now, due to traditionally good relations with Russia, Bulgaria has refused to provide direct military aid to Ukraine, and a strong argument for such a policy was its complete dependence on Russian gas.
Poland could sue Gazprom
The Polish gas concern PGNiG announced that Gazprom violated long-term contracts by suspending gas supplies, for which Poland could seek compensation. The government in Warsaw claims that it is prepared to cope even without Russian gas, that gas storages in Poland are 75 percent full and that gas will be delivered "from all possible countries."
Payment in rubles
After the historically most extensive sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, the ruble has drastically lost its value. That's why Moscow threatened "enemy" countries that they will stop supplying them with gas if they don't pay for it in rubles.
In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Western "enemy" countries must pay for Russian gas through Gazprom Bank in rubles, otherwise gas supplies would be suspended. Putin subsequently signed a decree according to which gas can still be paid in dollars and euros, which Gazprom Bank will then convert into rubles and pay to Gazprom. This was a concession primarily to Germany, as the largest importer of Russian gas, which refused to pay in rubles.
The European Commission called on all European gas concerns to continue paying for Russian gas in dollars or euros, as determined in the long-term contracts they signed with Gssprom.
At the beginning of August, an embargo on the import of Russian coal came into force in the European Union.
JH/Die Zeit/Tagesschau/ORF/CNN
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