Poland's state energy company on Thursday said it would not pay for Russian gas in rubles, becoming the latest to reject Kremlin demands amid unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

"We don't see how we could," PAP news agency quoted Pawel Majewski, head of state oil and gas company PGNiG, as saying.

"The contract... sets the means of payment. It does not allow one party to modify this according to its will."

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Russia would only accept payments in rubles for gas deliveries to "unfriendly countries" after Moscow was hit by an avalanche of sanctions over its war.

The economy minister of Germany, a country that imported 55 percent of its natural gas from Russia before the war, said the move was a breach of contract and that Berlin would discuss with European partners how to react.


The boss of Austria's OMV energy company said that the contract signed did not allow for payments in rubles.

Poland's current contract for Russian gas expires at the end of the year.

Warsaw is hoping to thereafter wean itself off Russian gas, replacing it with liquified gas shipments at ports and gas from Norway via a Baltic Sea pipeline.

The Kremlin has scrambled to limit the effects on Russia's economy of the unprecedented sanctions, which have affected everything from the central bank's foreign reserves to McDonalds.

Immediately after Putin's announcement, the ruble -- which has plummeted since the start of the Ukraine war -- strengthened against the dollar and euro, while gas prices rose.

Minjim:
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda:

“If someone wants to attack us, he has to take into account that we will stand firm to defend our homeland.

And I can assure you that Poland is large enough for us to bury all attackers in our soil” - ONET https:///Lvo22329EW

callme9mm:
Nuclear War might eventually happen, honestly.

I hope this is not a plot to reduce the population of humans on planet earth.

Una go don die and politicians go don hide for bunker for as long as possible to stay safe (there’s food, bed, good life inside a bunker, you won’t just be able to come out). There will be no one to hold them accountable lol.

Una think say Una be anything for their eyes ? . Tueh lol.

Think of it, you all are useless in the eyes of the government. They don rip all of una lol.

I kuku get my own bunker lol.

NaijaCowFarm:
Putin is in total woe! His disastrous fall would be worse than Gaddafi Saddam Hussein put together. They don't learn.

KaluwisxPRO:
The same Bitcoin Russia’s central bank gave a blanket ban, is what Putin has requested as mode of payment.

If Russia is as wise and technologically inclined, they would have sponsored/created a crypto on Defi and allow it to operate without interference like Binance.

But the dumb Putin doesn’t think.

SmartPolician:


Creating a government-backed stablecoin doesn't sound like a good idea because the West can target it and render it useless on exchanges and platforms where they are listed and traded on.

The US is a very influential and powerful country. In fact, I believe that bitcoin is still useful because the US hasn't outlawed it. Besides, the value of their Rubie or whatever it is called is depreciating at the speed of light.

I think the best bet is to secretly deal with countries and encourage them to pay in bitcoin. Sell gas and have them pay in BTC. They can exchange bitcoin for USD and Euros. That's pretty easy to do.

However, the big challenge now is that most countries that are willing to still do business with Russia like China have openly banned cryptocurrency and even crack down on citizens who perform cryptocurrency transactions. To be honest, Russia is in a big mess.

KaluwisxPRO:
The same Bitcoin Russia’s central bank gave a blanket ban, is what Putin has requested as mode of payment.

If Russia is as wise and technologically inclined, they would have sponsored/created a crypto on Defi and allow it to operate without interference like Binance.

But the dumb Putin doesn’t think.

plaindealer:



Not dumb enough to know that Bitcoin is a nonstarter, it's a sitting duck for immediate target and elimination, it won't take the FBI crypto task force to locate and seize it fiam fiam.

KaluwisxPRO:


I said Defi (Decentralized Finance), I never mentioned stable coin, please pay attention .

And no they cannot go the Bitcoin route, because most exchangers are operating under worldwide AML law, which will expose Russia users once they’re asked for KyC. That is like giving the US the opportunity to get them faster.


My point was, they could have supported a Russian backed Exchanger, one like Binance with no physical office. Be regulated in Russia and also able to accept foreign traders, that way, they absorb the general crypto community.

While giving Russians full access to trade Rubbles to other coin, from their own Crypto ecosystem far from Sanctions.

But Putin as mad as he is, didn’t calculate properly, and their Central bank was not in support of Crypto when they announced a blanket ban a couple of weeks before the invasion.

SmartPolician:


Sorry, I get your point now. We are having a sane discussion here. No be fight.

Well, the truth is, no communist government will allow cryptocurrency flourish in its domain because it negates everything the government stands for.

Governments want to be in charge, so they cannot allow a currency devoid of their control to be used for doing massive businesses in their territory. A communist state won't let that happen. That's why they are racing to slam the ban.

For me, I think Putin thought that Ukraine was going to be a walk in the park. In a few weeks or so, they will attack their neighbor and seize Kyiv. You saw how the Taliban captured Kabul the same day the US left Afghanistan. I guess Putin never anticipated this level of resistance from the Ukrainians.

In any case, this war is getting interesting and I hope Putin doesn't introduce atomic bombs because that will take it to another level.... possibly WW3.

KaluwisxPRO:



Mr man, I didn’t say Bitcoin, please if you cannot grasp my point, don’t mention me.

Those who know how Crypto works know damn well you cannot shut down an Exchanger with local license to operate in a country. US and Allies can only ban their citizens from trading on such platforms.

With crypto, most people from other countries won’t mind trading on such exchanges since KYC will be very minimal.

Going after such locally licensed exchanger is like going for the country’s stock index.

Just as the Russian stock exchange is still functional same way the Crypto exchange will still be up and running.

KaluwisxPRO:



Communist or not, Putin miscalculated. Because he’s right back at where he was supposed to start from, adopting Crypto - he decided late.

Even China, before they can go for Taiwan, trust me, they will cut themselves from global trade system and fully adopt their own Locally licensed exchange or Crypto which could serve the whole Asia.

At this point, Putin’s only choice is to de-escalate the situation. But him accepting defeats is exposing his weak military which is where he’s at right now. His only show of strength at the moment are Nukes, but that will only make his situation even worse.

SmartPolician:


Some of these steps appear easy in principle but difficult in practice. This is not 1945; our world is so interconnected now.

Some countries run by meeting their basic needs from imports from another. Everyone is focusing on their areas of comparative advantage to boost their economies.

As for China, they have also outlawed cryptocurrency. The government is even picking up crypto traders in the country. Now going back to say that they have lifted the ban will sound absurd, to say the least.

More importantly, China's biggest trading partner is the United States. So, making a decision to sever ties with the US because they want to annex Taiwan will come with a lot of economic consequences. In all this, I pity innocent citizens who will bear the brunt.

ayindejimmy:
Thunder fire Putin