Dmitry Peskov: "Russia does not blackmail anyone and remains a reliable partner of Europe"

The day before, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called Gazprom 's statements about the suspension of gas supplies to a number of European countries an attempt at blackmail, noting that the EU is ready for such a scenario and is planning a tough response.

According to RIA Novosti, in response, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov unequivocally stressed that Russia has been and remains a reliable supplier of energy resources to its consumers, Moscow is "committed to its contractual obligations".

The official representative of the Kremlin recalled that the terms of the new payment method are fixed in the decree of President Vladimir Putin. There, in particular, it is said that the need to switch to a new methodology was caused by unprecedented unfriendly steps in the economy and financial sector, which were taken by unfriendly countries in relation to Russia.

“The need to pay in rubles was dictated by the fact that, as you know, they blocked from us, speaking in Russian - they stole, a fairly significant amount of our foreign exchange reserves, and all this required a transition to a new payment system”.

Meanwhile, TASS, citing Bloomberg, reported that Austria and Germany agreed to change the payment currency. The first ten European companies purchasing Russian gas have opened ruble accounts with Gazprombank to pay for fuel supplies.

After that, the EU countries, ready to switch to the Russian currency when paying gas bills, decided to increase fuel purchases in the Russian Federation. Through them, EU partners hope to receive the fuel they need.