FAZ early thinkers: What does Putin's gas have

The most important things for you this Friday:

Sebastian Reuter

Editor on duty.

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1. What does Putin's gas decree mean?

1. In which currency is the gas paid?

From this Friday, European customers will have to pay for Russian gas via ruble accounts at Russian banks.

The consequences of this remain unclear at first.

Conversion:

Current supply contracts would be "stopped if customers from unfriendly countries do not meet the new payment terms," ​​Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens.

With the move, Russia wants to “strengthen its financial and economic sovereignty”.

So far, European energy companies have transferred payments in euros to euro accounts held by Russian banks.

The extent to which Putin's statement will have serious consequences for gas supplies now depends on the question of whether the companies could initially continue to pay into ruble accounts in euros, which would then be converted into rubles.

Checking and evaluating:

After Putin's announcement, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) again referred to existing contracts that said "that payment is made in euros, sometimes in dollars." The Ministry of Economic Affairs said that the decree from Russia would be "checked and evaluated ' as soon as it is available.

There was only a phone call between Scholz and Putin on Wednesday.

In it, Putin said, according to the German representation, that nothing would change for European contractual partners, since Gazprombank would convert euro amounts into rubles after the transfer.

According to a government spokesman, Scholz did not agree to this, but asked for written information "to better understand the process".

Financing:

For the past few days, the federal government has been trying to refute the accusation that Germany and other Western countries financed Putin's war in Ukraine with their payments for Russian energy.

The statement that Russia cannot currently do anything with the money because of the sanctions is contradicted by experts and economists such as Janis Kluge, the Russia specialist at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, to the FAZ. Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi also explained: "Germany and Italy are financing together with all countries who import gas, oil, coal and grain, the Russian war.

There is no doubt about that."

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2. Ukraine expects new Russian offensive

According to NATO, the Russian units in Ukraine are not withdrawing, "but are repositioning themselves".

"Offensive actions that will cause even more suffering" are to be expected.