Europe Confuses Paying for Gas Imports from Russia

MOSCOW, KOMPAS.com – Countries Europe in the middle of confusion to pay import bills gas from Russia to meet the needs of each country.

Russia’s decision to change its gas payment scheme to use the ruble from the euro or US dollar has left Europe unable to decide how to pay its bills.

Reported from CNN, Wednesday (18/5/2022), in the new mechanism issued by Russia, gas buyers who are not from ‘friendly’ countries must first open two accounts at Gazpprombank, where one account is in euros and the other is in rubles.

Read also: Government Begins to Be Alert, Russia-Ukraine Conflict Could Raise High Inflation

This then put European countries in a dilemma, because the European Commission stated that countries paying for Russian gas using rubles would be subject to sanctions from European Union.

“Anything that goes beyond opening an account in the contract currency with Gazprombank and making a payment to that account, and then issuing a statement saying that you have completed the payment, violates sanctions,” said European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer.

This statement contradicts a statement by the European Commission a few days ago, which led some European energy giants to assume that they could solve their payment problems by opening two Gazprombank bank accounts.

Just so you know, some time ago Gazprom stopped gas supplies to two European Union countries, namely Poland and Bulgaria, as a follow-up to President Vladimir Putin’s statement that he would suspend deliveries to hostile countries.

Since then, European gas distributors, state governments, and the European Union have agreed to minimize the spread of supply disruptions, while still imposing sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Last month, the European Commission had stated that as long as European countries purchase gas using euros and US dollars, then they do not violate the specified rules.

Read also: Russia-Ukraine at war, BPS: Conflict is hurting us…

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