Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Western sanctions against his country have dealt a large blow to public trust in the two major Western currencies. Many US allies have joined together to impose sweeping restrictions on Moscow in response to its ongoing military offensive in Ukraine.
Putin argued that the penalties showed it “makes no sense anymore” to sell Russian goods in the US and the EU while receiving payment in dollars or euros. He said that the ruble will be used for the sale of Russian natural gas to, what Moscow considers to be, “hostile” countries.
“During the last few weeks, as you know, several Western countries adopted unlawful decisions to freeze Russian assets,” Putin outlined during a government meeting held via video link. “The West has de facto destroyed the credibility of its currencies.”
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said this month that Russia was unable to access around $300 billion worth of reserves due to sanctions.
Moscow attacked Ukraine in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.
Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
Putin wants rubles for Russian gas
Russia will now accept payment for gas exports to "unfriendly countries" in rubles only, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the government on Wednesday.
The president explained that Russia plans to abandon all “compromised” currencies in payment settlements. He added that illegitimate decisions by a number of Western countries to freeze Russia’s assets destroyed all confidence in their currencies.
“I have decided to implement in the shortest possible time a set of measures to change the payments for – yes let’s start with this – for our natural gas supplied to the so-called unfriendly countries in Russian rubles, that is to stop using all compromised currencies for transactions,” the Russian president said.
"It doesn't make sense to deliver our goods to the EU and the US and get paid in dollars and euros," he added.
Putin gave the Central Bank and the government a week to determine the procedure for operations for buying rubles on the domestic market for importers of Russian gas.
The president added that Russia will continue to supply gas in accordance with the volumes and pricing principles of the contracts. Only the currency of payment will change.
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