La Tass: Austria agrees to pay for gas in rubles. But Vienna denies: “It’s Russian fake news”
Russia continues to supply natural gas to Austria without restrictions even after the stop for Poland and Bulgaria and Vienna continues to pay in euros. This is what was announced today, April 27, by the Austrian Minister of Energy Leonora Gewessler (Greens). The clarification is made necessary after the Russian news agency Tax he had spoken in the morning of the payment in rubles by Vienna. The mechanism will remain the same, that is, it provides for the settlement of accounts with Gazprombank which will then convert the currency into rubles. The Russian agency Ria Novosti he said that the Austrian energy company Omv is negotiating payment terms, and that Vienna is not ruling out the possibility of opening an account with Gazprombank. Vladimir Putin himself wants to push Western countries to initiate transitions through that bank of the arm of the gas giant Gazprom, which will handle euro financial investments in rubles.
Asked if there were any signs of a stop in gas deliveries to Austria, the minister said: “No, we do not have these signals”, specifying that the Austrian energy group OMV will continue payments “in accordance with the sanctions via euro “. Gewessler also stressed the need to free the country from energy dependence: “Vladimir Putin makes war even with supplies and everything must be done in this country (Austria, ed) to reduce our dependence on Russian gas as quickly as possible “. Meanwhile, on Twitter, the Austrian Prime Minister Nehammer has branded the payment in rubles as “fake news of Russian propaganda”.