Future contract Roscosmosthat Russian special agencythey will only be in ruble (Russian currency), declared today the director general of the agency, Dmitri Rogozin, a few hours after the president Russia, Vladimir Putinannounced that the state will charge for gas only in rubles.

“Now all our contracts with foreign countries will be exclusively in rubles,” he said in an interview with Russia’s First Channel television.

According to Rogozin, the payments will be made “under the same scheme that (to be applied to) hydrocarbon extraction companies.”

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Putin announced today during a meeting with the government of Russia’s decision to refuse payments for Russian gas in currencies, including dollars and euros, and to charge supplies to “unfriendly” countries, including the European Union, in rubles only.

The decision seeks to counter sanctions imposed by the West after the start of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, which was condemned by the international community.

“I have decided to implement as soon as possible a series of measures to transfer payments for our natural gas by so-called hostile countries to rubles,” he said.

“I ask the government to give proper instructions to Gazprom to amend the existing contracts. At the same time, all foreign consumers should have the opportunity to carry out the necessary operations,” he added.

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The Russian government adopted on the 8th a list of hostile countries and territories, which includes the US and Canada, all member states of the European Union (EU), United Kingdom, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, Albania, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, North Macedonia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Micronesia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan.

In Putin’s opinion, the West, with the decision to freeze Russian assets – the foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank, for example – actually declared a suspension of payments to Moscow and ended the reliability of its currency.

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