New Delhi: China will start paying for Russian gas in rubles and yuan instead of US dollars, as Moscow seeks closer ties with Beijing in the wake of Western sanctions over Ukraine, said Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation Gazprom on Tuesday.
The statement comes six months after Russia and its ally Beijing signed a 30-year deal between former’s state corporation Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation in early February.
Russia’s Gazprom did not give out the details of when it signed the scheme with Beijing on payment in domestic currency, switching from dollars into rubles and yuan. Just a month after he ordered the military invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin asked European customers to open ruble bank accounts as he demanded that they pay in rubles for Russian gas given sanctions and a ban from the international payment system SWIFT.
Russia signed a landmark $37.5 billion extension to its deal to supply gas to China on the eve of the invasion.
It started pumping gas to China through the 3,000-km (1,865 miles) Power of Siberia gas pipeline in late 2019. Putin hailed the move as a “genuinely historical event, not only for the global energy market but above all for us, for Russia and China.”
(Vinayak)