Western sanctions against Moscow led to difficulties in paying for energy supplies from Russia.

This was announced on Thursday, April 14, by President Vladimir Putin at a meeting on the current situation in the oil and gas sector.

“There are failures in payment for export deliveries of Russian energy resources.

Banks from these most unfriendly countries are delaying the transfer of payments, ”Putin said.

The large-scale sanctions rhetoric of the United States and the European Union, observed since the end of February, has complicated the work of Western banks themselves, said Igor Yushkov, a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Fund.

According to him, as a result of restrictions, financial institutions faced technical difficulties in conducting operations.

“Banks now, apparently, do not understand which payments are subject to sanctions and which are not.

As a result, they are forced to play it safe, slow down these transactions and send them for verification, which is why delays occur, ”the interlocutor of RT explained.

In this regard, Russia intends to radically increase the share of payments in national currencies in the foreign trade system, Vladimir Putin said.

As the President recalled, even today the authorities have been tasked with gradually abandoning the use of dollars and euros when paying for energy resources.

For such a transition, Vladimir Putin instructed to properly prepare the Russian foreign exchange market.

It is necessary to make sure that any foreign currency can be freely and in the right amount exchanged for rubles, the president explained.

“Rejection of unreliable, compromised currencies and jurisdictions is a strategic task in terms of the financial and economic security of our country, important for maintaining and increasing the volume of foreign trade, establishing sustainable ties with predictable partners,” Putin added.

As the president noted earlier, the West, with its sanctions and blocking of Russian reserves, crossed out confidence in the currencies of the European Union and the United States.

Thus, paying for energy resources in dollars and euros "does not make any sense" for Moscow, the Russian leader said.

As a result, on April 1, on the instructions of Vladimir Putin, a new settlement procedure was introduced in Russia for the supply of natural gas to unfriendly countries.

Now Moscow accepts payment for its energy resources only in rubles.

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To pay for gas, foreign buyers must open two special accounts with Gazprombank: in foreign currency and in rubles.

First, the money must be transferred to a foreign currency account, after which the bank on the Moscow Exchange will exchange these funds for rubles and credit them to the ruble account.

Immediately after that, the foreign partner will be able to transfer rubles directly to the gas seller. 

Moreover, according to Vladimir Putin, at the moment, European countries continue to discuss the rejection of raw materials supplies from Russia.

So, in the West they are trying to "squeeze Russian suppliers" out of the market and find an alternative to them.

However, as the president believes, the consequences of such a step could be painful for the initiators of this policy.

This, in turn, will affect the citizens and the competitiveness of the European economy, the Russian leader is sure.

“What is surprising here is that the so-called partners from unfriendly countries themselves admit that they cannot do without Russian energy resources, including without natural gas, for example.

There is simply no reasonable replacement for Europe now ... There are simply no free volumes on the world market, and supplies from other countries - primarily from the United States - that can be sent to Europe will cost consumers many times more, ”said the president. .

Looking for a compromise

According to the latest Eurostat estimates, in 2020, Russian fuel accounted for approximately 46% of the total structure of EU gas imports.

At that time, this type of raw material was most actively purchased from Moscow by Poland (55% of supplies came from the Russian Federation), Germany (66%), Bulgaria (75%), Slovakia (85%), Estonia (93%), Hungary (95%) , Finland (98%), as well as Latvia and the Czech Republic (100%).

Against this background, statements by the European authorities about a possible rejection of Russian raw materials lead to an increase in consumer prices, Vladimir Putin noted.

According to preliminary data from Eurostat, in March, the annual inflation rate in the eurozone rose to 7.5% - the highest level for the entire time of observation.

The current situation in Europe is also complicated by the growing shortage of gas in the region's reserves.

According to the latest data from the Gas Infrastructure Association of Europe (GIE), the storage facilities of the EU countries are only 27.3% full in total.

The Netherlands (20.5%), Romania and Slovakia (19.6% each), Hungary (18.9%), Croatia (18.3%), Bulgaria (16.1%) have the smallest fuel reserves as a percentage of storage volumes. %), Austria (14.4%) and Belgium (12.9%).

Curiously, under the circumstances, some European countries and companies have already agreed to pay for Russian gas in rubles.

In particular, the Hungarian authorities announced their readiness to switch to a new settlement system.

“We have no problems paying in rubles.

If the Russians ask to pay in rubles, we will pay in rubles,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on April 6.

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Nikolay Vavilov, a specialist in Total Research's strategic research department, suggested in an interview with RT that Hungary could become Europe's new energy hub.

Thus, the country can start buying gas in large volumes from Moscow for rubles, and then resell the fuel to other states in the region that have refused to pay in Russian currency.

“Theoretically, such a development of events is more than realistic.

Another question is whether Hungary will have enough capacity to transport gas to the EU, and how this will affect prices for the state itself.

The sharp increase in purchase volumes will make it clear that Hungary buys gas not only for itself, but also for other countries.

In addition, Hungary's contracts with Gazprom contain a clearly defined volume of deliveries.

Therefore, you will either have to conclude a new contract, but on different terms, or revise the current one, ”Vavilov noted.

At the same time, the expert did not rule out that European companies will start using other methods to circumvent EU bans.

So, for example, businesses can buy gas from Russia for rubles not directly, but through intermediaries, the analyst believes.

New vector

Nevertheless, as Vladimir Putin believes, in the foreseeable future, the export of Russian energy resources to the west will be reduced.

In this regard, the head of state announced the need to reorient the supply of raw materials to other buyers.

“As for the export of energy resources: it is necessary to accelerate the implementation of infrastructure projects - railway, pipeline, port, which in the coming years will allow redirecting oil and gas supplies from the West to promising markets - to the south and east,” Putin instructed.

According to Nikolai Vavilov, Russian hydrocarbons are already in high demand in the southern and eastern directions.

At the same time, it will take some time to reorient more significant export volumes, the specialist noted.

“It is not for nothing that Russia and China are accelerating the construction of the second string of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, and the Pakistan Stream has already been agreed with Pakistan.

However, all this will take another two or three years, and Europe will not be able to abruptly abandon our gas, even despite the active search for alternative solutions, ”concluded Vavilov.