Russia: Duma speaker wants to charge more exports in rubles











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LONDON (Reuters) – The European Union will have to pay in rubles if it wants to buy Russian natural gas and the same mechanism could apply to oil, grain, metals and fertilizers, the Speaker of the House of Commons said on Wednesday. deputies from Russia.

President Vladimir Putin last week ordered natural gas exports to Europe and the United States to be charged in rubles from now on, in retaliation for Western sanctions against Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.

G7 energy ministers on Monday rejected ruble payments and French President Emmanuel Macron told Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that France was against it.

“If you want gas, find rubles,” said Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

“Beyond that, it would be fair, when it would be beneficial to our country, to extend the list of exported products invoiced in rubles to include fertilizers, cereals, edible oil, petroleum, coal, metals, wood, etc.”

It is not known at this time whether this statement reflects the official position of the Russian government, but Vladimir Putin, when announcing the payment for the gas in rubles, said that it was only a first stage of a larger process.

Moscow considers that the Western sanctions, and in particular the freezing of approximately 275 billion euros of reserves of the Russian central bank held abroad, amount to a declaration of economic war.

(Report Guy Faulconbridge, French version Marc Angrand, edited by Matthieu Protard)










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