Moscow, March 31, 2022 – Putin, the war in Ukraine and the gas war. The Russian president threat of stop supplies to Europe if they are not paid in rubles. In fact, it divides the buyer countries into good and bad, hostile and not. In short, a first and foremost political move. But who is the economic protagonist of this poker game? Write down this name well, Gazprombank. And keep in mind another one too, Sogaz.
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Gazprombank
And the financial arm of the Russian energy giant. In the Putin decree, Gazprombank And to the bank – excluded from sanctions – authorized to open special accounts in rubles for gas buyers from “hostile countries”. It works like this: countries considered ‘hostile’ from Moscow will have to open “Special accounts” in Gazprombank in rubles and euros to make payments for Russian gas. The bank will buy rubles with the currency deposited on the Moscow Exchange during bargaining hours.
The decree reads: “The authorized bank (ie Gazprombank, ed.), In response to an order from a foreign buyer received in accordance with the rules, sells the currency received from the buyer on that account during trading hours to Moscow Stock Exchange “.
All this complicated explanation to say that in the end, with this technicalityin fact, it will be possible to continue paying for gas in EUR O in dollars.
The mechanism, before and after
Before the Putin decree, according to informed sources explained to beraking latest news, payments were made in euros on a Gazprombank account in Luxembourg. The escamatoge found, they point out, now allows buyer countries to continue paying in euros: Gazprombank will then automatically convert euros into rubles by transferring them to the account opened by European countries. When the company, Gazprom, will have received the payments, will supply the gas supplies. Within ten days the Russian central bank it will have to define the rules for special currency accounts for gas purchasing countries, as specified by the decree signed by Vladimir Putin.
Sogaz
But in the gas galaxy we meet another important name, that of Sogaz, Russian insurance giant, Gazprom’s subsidiary company which is its largest shareholder and has it founded in 1993. First Russian insurer by market share, Sogaz is on the list of sanctioned subjects by the EU on February 28, in the second package of measures decided after Putin’s invasion and the war in Ukraine.