10 EU countries quietly buy Russian gas with rubles

While many European leaders have publicly stated that they will not buy Russian gas with ruble as requested by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the 10 countries of the European Union (EU) are technically implementing Putin’s plan – Mr. Gergely Gulyas, Minister, Head of the Hungarian Government Office, told Hungarian radio on May 1.

According to Mr. Gulyas, the leaders of these countries do not acknowledge this to be considered “a good European”.

Mr. Gulyas said Hungary has opened an account using Euros at the bank Gazprombank Russia, the bank then converts the payments into rubles before passing them on to suppliers in Russia. The system allows European buyers to comply with President Putin’s request made in late March that “unfriendly” countries pay for Russian gas in rubles.

“There are 9 other countries that use similar payment methods, but they do not admit to doing so to maintain their reputation as a good European country” – the head of the Government Office of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speak.

“No one can doubt that countries importing raw materials from Russia use the same method to pay for Russian gas,” Mr. Gulyas added.

It is not clear which EU countries Mr Guylas is referring to. Gazprom has stopped supplying gas to Poland and Bulgaria after both refused to pay in rubles, but a Bloomberg report last week also said that 10 EU member states have set up accounts with Gazprombank and 4 of them have actually paid for gas. of Russia using this mechanism.

Gazprom also launched ultimatum for Finland “don’t pay in rubles no gas”. Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported on April 30 that Russian energy group Gazprom set a deadline of May 20 for Finnish authorities to give a final response on whether the country will pay for gas in copper. rubles or not.

Hungary depends on Russia for all its gas imports and has therefore opposed EU sanctions on this vital commodity. On May 1, Mr. Gulyas reiterated his commitment to Russia’s energy and protested against EU sanctions on Russia.

“We must not apply those sanctions, because the sanctions that we impose back make us punish ourselves,” Mr Gulyas said, referring to soaring energy prices across Europe. . Although the government of Budapest condemns the Russian military campaign in UkraineMr. Guylas vowed to “continue to buy energy as cheaply as possible” to offset any costs to the Hungarian people.