President Joe Biden said the United States will not allow Russia to escape consequences or sanctions after it cut natural gas imports to Bulgaria and Poland.
In a Twitter thread Thursday night, Biden said he is working with world leaders to help compensate for the loss of exports after Russia declared it will not provide natural gas to any “unfriendly” country that does not pay for the gas in rubles, the Russian currency, as Russia faces sanctions in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
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“Yesterday, Russia threatened two of our allies with a cut off of energy supplies. Let me be clear: We will not let Russia intimidate or blackmail their way out of sanctions. And we will not allow them to use their oil to avoid consequences for their aggression,” Biden tweeted. “We are working with other nations — like South Korea, Japan, and Qatar — that support our effort to help our European allies threatened by Russia with gas blackmail meet their energy needs in other ways. Aggression will not win. Threats will not win.”
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This week, the Department of Energy authorized additional liquefied natural gas exports after Russian state-owned gas supplier Gazprom halted its gas flow to Poland and Bulgaria, two NATO allies, when the two nations refused to comply with a decree to pay for their supply in rubles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that his country is weaponizing natural resources, calling such accusations “politically motivated blather,” according to CNBC.
Russia’s demand that all payments for natural gas come in the form of rubles was deemed a “high risk” move by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said doing so would breach EU sanctions.
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Still, gas distributors in other countries, such as Germany, Hungary, and Slovakia, plan to pay for their gas in euros, which would then be converted into rubles by the Russian bank Gazprombank. Gas companies in Italy and Austria are also considering opening bank accounts with Gazprombank, according to the Financial Times. The EU has indicated that this mechanism could be used to get around the sanctions since the bank is not under EU sanctions.
Russia was responsible for 41% of EU natural gas imports in 2019, according to the BBC, indicating that other European countries placing sanctions on Russia are vulnerable if Moscow decides to cut off their supply.
