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Gazprom gas pipeline in Siberia
Photo: MAXIM SHEMETOV / REUTERS
Moscow's Kommersant reports that Gazprom is preparing for a possible gas supply freeze.
Under the headline "Severed Pipelines," the business-focused daily reports that the Russian gas giant is "actually working out the possibility of completely shutting off gas supplies to "unfriendly countries" and assessing the consequences of such a move.
As a source, the paper names an unspecified insider.
The Russian company itself did not confirm the information and declined to comment, writes Kommersant (click here for the Russian report).
It also remains unclear how concrete the preparations for a delivery stop actually are.
A week ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Gazprom and the Russian central bank to make all preparations for switching gas sales to the EU to rubles.
The Kremlin's long-cherished wish
However, European gas customers do not want to get involved in this.
On the one hand, because it would represent a breach of the supply contracts, which have so far been denominated in dollars and euros, and on the other hand, because the West would essentially have to undermine its own sanctions with ruble payments.
Due to the conflict, there was also an abrupt halt to deliveries at the beginning of April.
However, mixed signals have recently come from Moscow on the question.
Putin's press spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, announced on Wednesday that he would not insist on switching to ruble payments immediately.
Payment and delivery are time-consuming processes, he explained.
At almost the same time, Moscow was also calling for the payment of practically all Russian export goods to be changed to rubles in the future.
Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the Russian parliament and a hardliner loyal to Putin, announced that in future grain, oil, coal and wood would only be delivered in exchange for ruble payments.
Abandoning the euro and the dollar is a long-cherished dream of the Russian leadership.
Putin has made repeated attempts in this direction in recent years, but so far without much success.
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