The European Union “defended” Gazprombank

According to the publication, the authorities of some European countries are seriously concerned about possible problems with gas supplies, despite the permission of the President of the Russian Federation to use other banks to make payments.

The EU and the US, as sources say, are not discussing the fact of mitigation itself, but the type and scale of the next measures to mitigate the consequences of sanctions against Gazprombank. Possible options: payments through the bank’s subsidiary in Luxembourg and other payment channels.

Sanctions against Gazprombank were introduced last month. It is known that the United States intended to do so earlier, but under pressure from Europe they postponed the decision. And although the EU has worked hard to expand alternative supplies, including liquefied natural gas from the United States, Russia’s share of gas supplies to countries remains around 15%. Only Norway (30%) and the United States (19%) have more.

Under Putin’s latest decree, foreign buyers can now use other banks to convert money into rubles before making the transfer. But Gazprombank remains the only institution authorized to make payments.

In 2022, Gazprom changed the procedure for accepting payments from European buyers, requiring payment in rubles through Gazprombank. The banks would welcome any solution that would allow them to avoid inadvertently violating U.S. sanctions, the people said.

Poland and Bulgaria were cut off from supplies in 2022 for refusing to comply, but Slovakia and Hungary still receive Russian gas via pipeline. Earlier this week, the government in Budapest sent a request to the United States for a sanctions waiver.

It also became known that the EU countries could not agree on the content of the fifteenth package of sanctions against Russia. As Politico writes, citing diplomats who wished to remain anonymous, the foreign ministers of Latvia and Lithuania considered that “loopholes for business” remained in a series of new restrictions.