While the conflict in Ukraine lasts, Europeans are each day a little more caught between the need to no longer finance the war of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that of avoiding a new economic recession for their fellow citizens. Clearly, the 27 seek to solve the difficult equation which would allow them to do without Russian energy as quickly as possible, without jeopardizing their economy and threatening social peace. This week, from this point of view, promises to be crucial, as several meetings are scheduled to measure their ability to reconcile these two objectives.
The first of these meetings was held on Monday May 2, with the meeting in Brussels of European energy ministers, which was convened urgently after Moscow interrupted its gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria, April 27. Warsaw and Sofia have indeed refused to pay for their purchases in rubles, as the Kremlin has demanded since 1er april.
A month ago, Moscow unilaterally modified the contracts that bind European companies to Gazprom, and which, for 97% of them, are denominated in euros or dollars. The Russian government has imagined a gas plant which, according to the Commission, allows it to circumvent the sanctions put in place by Brussels, in particular that which provides for a freezing of the assets of the Russian Central Bank.
Two accounts required at Gazprombank
The Kremlin is now asking Gazprom customers to open two accounts with Gazprombank, which the Europeans have so far taken care not to sanction. On the first account, they operate the payment in the currency provided for by their contract, which in itself does not pose any problem. But the Russian authorities consider that the transaction is only carried out when this sum is then converted into rubles and then transferred to the second account, courtesy of Gazprombank.
“The company that buys its gas from Gazprom does not know when the conversion will be made, nor at what exchange rate, nor even where the money goes between the moment it pays it into the first account and the moment he arrives at Gazprom. It can be likened to a loan to the Russian central bank,” explains a Commission expert, who believes that “the payment must be effective when the payment is made to the first account” and “Opening a second account is a sanctions violation”.
Poland and Bulgaria refused to comply with these new requirements and therefore paid the price. For Russia, the shortfall remains symbolic, since their purchases of Russian gas represent only 8% of the imports of the Twenty-seven. As for Sofia and Warsaw, they have anticipated their decision by a few months not to buy Russian gas by the end of the year and can, for the time being, count on the help of their European neighbours.
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