According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, effective April 1, Western states must open accounts with Gazprombank in order to continue receiving Russian gas.

Otherwise, deliveries to "unfriendly" countries would be halted, he said on Russian state television.

It was initially unclear what the concrete consequences of this would be, for example for German or other European companies - and also whether the states themselves would have to pay in rubles or whether a euro payment would be converted directly within the bank.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov had previously confirmed that Germany could probably continue to pay for gas supplies in euros as before.

A payment system is being worked on, according to which the money will be paid in euros to Gazprombank, which is not affected by sanctions, then exchanged and transferred to Russia in rubles, Peskov said on Thursday afternoon, according to the Interfax agency.

According to Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi, in addition to Germany, all other countries in Europe can continue to pay for Russian gas in euros or dollars.

Scholz reacts calmly

Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacted calmly to the Russian President's announcement.

Scholz referred to the existing contracts in Berlin on Thursday.

"It says that you pay in euros, sometimes in dollars," he said.

"In the conversation with the Russian President, I made it clear that this will remain the case." Scholz had called Putin on Wednesday at his request.

Putin, on the other hand, announced a week ago that in future he would only sell Russian gas to “unfriendly” states for rubles.

At the time, the head of the Kremlin instructed Gazprom and the Russian central bank to work out appropriate modalities for switching payments from euros and dollars to rubles.

Moscow justified its actions with an alleged “economic war” by the West.

Putin justified his ruble initiative with the fact that "in violation of the norms of international law, the foreign exchange reserves of the Bank of Russia were frozen by the member states of the European Union".

This was the EU's reaction to Russia's war against Ukraine.

Putin had said that payments in euros and dollars were now of no value to the country.

The group of G7 economic powerhouses, including Germany, as well as the European Union as a whole, reject payments in rubles.

The federal government had accused Russia of breaching the treaty.

According to the Kremlin, in the phone call with Scholz on Wednesday evening, Putin had assured that the switch to ruble payments for Russian gas should not lead to disadvantages for Germany.