POlen, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark will no longer receive gas from Russia – according to the Kremlin, however, all other countries will continue to be supplied. When asked whether new gas supply stops were planned, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, according to the Interfax agency: “No. The system works, the system has been adjusted and those who receive gas are already working under the new system.”
At the end of March, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin ordered a new payment system in response to Western sanctions in the wake of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The procedure stipulates that customers open a so-called K-account with the state-owned Russian Gazprombank. There they can still pay their bills in euros or dollars, the bank converts the money into rubles and transfers it to Gazprom.
The EU Commission does not consider the sanctions to be violated as long as the companies transfer the amounts in euros or dollars, as stipulated in the contracts, to an account with Gazprom, and the transaction is then considered completed.
However, Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark refused to switch to the new scheme and will no longer receive Russian gas. In Germany, Shell Energy Europe is affected by the delivery stop. However, the 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas that the group previously purchased from Russia are not relevant to Germany’s security of supply.
