German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck has announced that the Group of 7 countries have agreed not to pay Russia for gas imports in rubles, as it demands.
This was reported by the Washington Post, citing a statement by Habeck on Monday.
"All G7 ministers fully agree that this [payment in rubles] is a unilateral and clear violation of existing contracts," he said.
Habeck added that "payments in rubles are unacceptable, and we will urge companies not to comply with the requirement."
Putin has issued an ultimatum to pay for gas in Russian currency. His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia was "clearly not going to supply gas for free" in response to a question about whether energy supplies could be cut off if the demand was not met.
Recently the Russian Federation declared that will take payment for gas exclusively in rubles. This is due to the occupier's desire to strengthen its currency and declare economic war on Europe, said the head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak.
The Center for Strategic Communications said analysts said Putin's move was an attempt to play on the European Union's energy needs in order to ease sanctions pressure. The Russian leadership hopes that such a proposal will be accepted by one of the EU countries and thus the unity of the West will be weakened.
Following the ultimatum, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told the EU summit in Brussels that no European country would pay Russia for its gas supplies in rubles.
At the same time, the Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo said that if Russia requires European countries to pay for gas supplies in rubles, the price should also be reconsidered. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also rejected Russia's demand to pay for gas in rubles.