Russia asserts that the dispute stems over the currency used to pay for the country's natural gas supply.
WARSAW, Poland — Polish and Bulgarian leaders accused Moscow of using natural gas to blackmail their countries after Russia’s state-controlled energy company stopped supplying them with gas Wednesday. European Union leaders echoed those comments and were holding an emergency meeting on the Russian move.
Russian energy giant Gazprom said in a statement that it hadn’t received any payments from Poland and Bulgaria since April 1 and was suspending their deliveries starting Wednesday. And if those countries siphon off Russian gas intended for other European customers, Gazprom said deliveries to Europe will be reduced by that amount.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, argued that the Russian demand to switch to paying for gas in rubles resulted from Western actions that froze Russian hard currency assets. He said those were effectively “stolen” by the West in an “unprecedented unfriendly action.” “I don’t know what the results will be for regular citizens like myself,” said Nina Rudnicka, a lecturer at Poznan University. “But I believe that one should not bow to Russia’s blackmail. It was the right decision not to change to payment in rubles.”
Russian gas supplies to both Poland and Bulgaria already were expected to end later this year anyway. In Bulgaria, the main consumers of gas are district heating companies. Bulgaria’s energy minister said his country can meet the needs of users for at least one month.
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