Side effect of sanctions
“In Poland we have 2,5 thousand municipalities (districts – socialbites.ca). We are doing everything possible to restart the gas supply to the communes, supplied by a Russian company and embraced by sanctions, ”said Pavel Shefernaker, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland, quoted by Pavel Shefernaker, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland.
According to him, “these decisions (related to the sanctions against Novatek Green Energy – socialbites.ca) could not have been announced to regional authorities in advance” because “decisions to include firms in the list of sanctioned enterprises were made behind closed doors. ”
According to RIA Novosti, another deputy interior minister of Poland, Maciej Wonsik, said that in order to restore gas supplies, authorities plan to withdraw infrastructure owned by the Russian company. The corresponding decision was made by the Prime Minister of the Republic, Mateusz Morawiecki, “on the basis of the crisis management law, so that Polish companies must accept the gas infrastructure and supply gas to these communes”.
“Of course it’s strange that this infrastructure is in the hands of a Russian company,” Vonsik said.
On April 26, Poland published a list of 35 companies and 15 sanctions against Russia and Belarus. Among them, Gazprom, Akron, Novatek, Severstal, PhosAgro, Beloil, Faberlic, Kaspersky, Kamaz, Wildberries and the CEO of this company Tatyana Bakalchuk, businessmen Oleg Deripaska, Mikhail Fridman, Mikhail Gutseriev, Vyacheslav Kantor, Evgeny Kaspersky, Igor Sechin, Viktor Vekselberg et al. Polish sanctions include freezing the financial assets and properties of these firms, excluding the possibility of participating in tenders, and banning entrepreneurs from entering Poland.
without gas
Gazprom announced on its Telegram channel the previous day that it “completely suspends gas supplies to Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and PGNiG (Poland) due to non-payment in rubles”.
“As of the end of the April 26 business day, Gazprom Export has not received a payment in rubles for gas supplies to Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and PGNiG (Poland) in April, in accordance with the decree of the Head of Payments of the Russian Federation. For gas supplied from April 1, it should be carried out in rubles, using the new details of which the counterparties are informed in a timely manner. In this context, Gazprom Export notified Bulgargaz and PGNiG that gas supply has been suspended from April 27 until payment is made in accordance with the procedure established by the decree.
Gazprom added that Bulgaria and Poland are transit countries. Therefore, “In case of unauthorized withdrawal of Russian gas from transit volumes to third countries, the transit supply will decrease by this volume.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described Gazprom’s decision as “unfair and unacceptable”. According to him, this is “another attempt by Russia to use gas as a blackmail tool”. He also warned European companies not to succumb to Russia’s demands for changes in gas prices.
Switching to payment in rubles
On Thursday, the Rheinische Post newspaper reported, citing a company representative, that German conglomerate Uniper, the largest buyer of Russian gas in Germany, has agreed to transfer gas payments to a Russian bank, not a European bank.
“Making our payments in euros to an account in Russia,” said a representative from the holding, the publication said.
In addition, Bloomberg, citing a source close to Gazprom, said that four European gas buyers paid for deliveries in rubles, as requested by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Even if other buyers reject the Kremlin’s terms, further cuts are unlikely to occur until the second half of May, when the next payments will be made after cutting gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria,” the article says.
According to the publication, ten European companies have already opened accounts at Gazprombank to meet Russia’s payment requirements.
The Financial Times said that the largest energy companies in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia are preparing to open a ruble account with Gazprombank in Switzerland to pay for gas supplies from Russia in rubles.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.