This was announced in an interview with reporters by the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov.
As von der Leyen said earlier, stopping gas supplies for non-payment for gas is "unjustified and unacceptable" and is "Russia's attempt to use gas as a blackmail tool."
“This is not blackmail, Russia has been and remains a reliable supplier of energy resources to its consumers, and Russia remains committed to its contractual obligations,” the Kremlin spokesman emphasized.
The terms of the new payment methodology are fixed in the decree of the President of Russia, and the need to switch to the new methodology was caused by unprecedented hostile steps in the economy and the financial sector against the country, Peskov recalled.
“This need was dictated by the fact that, as you know, they blocked from us, speaking in Russian - they stole a fairly significant amount of our reserves, and all this required a transition to a new payment system.
Therefore, we are not talking about any blackmail here, in advance all these new modalities were brought to the attention of buyers.
We categorically disagree with this definition,” the press secretary of the head of state said.
Peskov stressed that "payment in the proper form" would be the basis for continuing deliveries.
On April 27, Gazprom announced a complete suspension of gas supplies to the Bulgarian Bulgargaz and the Polish PGNiG due to non-payment in rubles.
The Russian company also indicated that it would reduce transit to third countries if Bulgaria and Poland start unauthorized withdrawal from the transit flow.