Ukraine News: Germany caves in on gas payments – “Moscow celebrates this as a triumph”
Created: 06/03/2022 05:18
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
At the end of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree that the West must pay its gas bills in rubles.
(Archive photo) © Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP / dpa
The Russian state-owned company Gazprom is turning off the gas tap for customers who do not want to make payments in rubles.
Germany is fine - because they have apparently bowed to Putin's guidelines.
Berlin – This week, the Russian state-owned company Gazprom ordered further gas supply stops.
This time the Danish utility Ørsted and Shell Energy Europe are affected.
The reason: Ørsted and Shell had informed Gazprom Export that they would not pay the invoices in rubles, as requested by Moscow, the Russian company announced on Tuesday.
Shell has stated that gas deliveries to Germany will not be paid for in the Russian currency, Gazprom Export said.
Shell is thus adhering to the requirements of the EU sanctions.
Because according to them it is forbidden to pay bills in rubles.
Ukraine war: Putin threatens gas stop for "unfriendly countries"
At the end of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree that the West must pay its gas bills in rubles.
Otherwise, Putin threatened, deliveries to the “unfriendly” countries would be stopped.
Several European countries such as Poland, Bulgaria and the Netherlands refused to comply with this request, after which Russia turned off their gas supply.
The federal government has also officially opposed Russia's demand to pay in rubles.
Behind the scenes, however, the companies involved and the EU were working with Russia to find a solution that would give both sides the opportunity to maintain gas supplies while saving faces.
Ruble payments on gas deliveries?
The solution is controversial
In mid-May, German, French and Italian gas importers then announced how they could comply with the sanctions and still get gas from Russia: They pay the bill from Moscow in euros to an account at Gazprombank.
This subsequently converts the payment into rubles.
In the EU Commission, however, this form of payment is controversial.
Some companies, such as Shell, have not followed this argument either.
An expert agrees with the companies: “The arguments from GasTerra, Shell and Ørsted are valid.
These companies rightly refuse to open a ruble account at Gazprombank, as ordered by Putin's decree," Armin Steinbach, professor of law and economics at the École des hautes études commerciales in Paris, told
Tagesschau. en
.
The sanctioned Central Bank of Russia is also indirectly involved in the conversion of the amount paid into the ruble account in euros.
"This violates the law on sanctions."
Nevertheless, several European companies have opted for the two-account solution, apparently with the backing of the German government: On June 1, the German energy companies RWE and Uniper announced that they had paid their bills for Russian gas due in May “in accordance with sanctions”.
An RWE spokeswoman confirmed to the
Rheinische Post
that the company had transferred the amount in euros to an account at Gazprom Bank.
A Uniper spokesman also told the newspaper: "Like other German and European companies before it, Uniper has changed the payment method for gas deliveries from Russia.
Uniper pays in euros in line with the new payment mechanism.
The first of these payments was made at the end of May.”
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The companies want to meet Russian demands without breaking western sanctions.
"In this way, Uniper acts in compliance with the sanctions and can continue to guarantee timely fulfillment of the contract.
The procedure was agreed in advance with the federal government and follows the relevant EU guidelines.” Apparently, people in Russia are also satisfied with this solution – the Federal Network Agency reported no disruption to gas supplies on Wednesday.
Payments of Russian gas supplies: "On closer inspection, it's not all clean"
According to the
FAZ
, it is said in the energy industry that everyone can save face with this "egg dance": "It cannot be avoided that Moscow celebrates this as a triumph because it looks as if the West has buckled," said a source for the newspaper.
In addition, the
FAZ
raises the question of whether the energy companies have to instruct Gazprombank to exchange foreign currency.
Because this would clearly undermine the sanctions of the EU.
Apparently, however, Russia has accommodated Western companies on this point and interprets the opening of ruble accounts as an “implicit” willingness to exchange.
"On closer inspection, it's not all clean," the informant told the
FAZ
.
"But neither side has an interest in the fog lifting."
(lma/dpa/AFP)
