The European Union should try to live without Russia for at least one year. This was announced on April 30 by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.
“The EU is accustomed to living at the expense of others: first at the expense of the colonies, now Russia must heat them. And they cynically tell us: “In seven years we will give up Russian gas.” We have the right to answer: “Why should we wait? If you refuse strategic relations, live without Russia for at least one year, ”he wrote on his Telegram channel.
The speaker of the State Duma supported the decision to cut off gas supplies to some European countries.
“In my opinion, this is the right decision. Such measures must be taken against unfriendly countries. At the same time, more and more states are negotiating with Russia to pay for gas in rubles,” Volodin added.
On April 27, Gazprom announced that it had completely suspended deliveries to Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and PGNIG (Poland) due to the lack of payment for gas in rubles. The company specified that Bulgaria and Poland are transit states. If there is an unauthorized withdrawal of Russian gas from transit volumes to third countries, then supplies for transit will be reduced by this volume.
After that, it became known that Poland began to buy Russian gas in reverse from Germany via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline after the suspension of direct supplies.
On April 29, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov stressed that Europe would not be able to abandon Russian gas in the near future. At the same time, the Russian Federation is already working on deliveries to other countries. Earlier, Siluanov noted that the Russian side did not refuse to fulfill its obligations and fulfill contracts.
And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “there will be no charity in gas supplies.” He warned that in the absence of payment there would be no gas.
On March 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the country would switch to paying for gas supplies to unfriendly states in rubles, and signed a decree on March 31. Buyers had to open ruble accounts from which gas payments are made. The decision was made against the backdrop of anti-Russian sanctions that foreign countries imposed after the start of a special operation to protect civilians in Donbass. Then a number of G7 countries and the European Union considered the Russian demand a violation of contracts.
