Russia's Waterfall for Gas

I thank Peskov for that. Russian media just said the problem for us is paying in rubles, due to currency instability. I hope we can solve this”, Vuciq said on March 24th, at Pink Television.

He previously estimated that increasing the price of oil and natural gas in the world market, due to the crisis in Ukraine, is a major problem, which becomes even bigger after Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to pay Russian gas in ruble.

Commenting on Vuciqi's statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, on March 24th, said he understands that position and that Serbia's concerns would be a priority for Russia.

This can really be a problem situation. In this case, Bulgaria approached us hostilely and for that reason it would have to pay in rubles. But, at the same time, it is not worth Serbia. This is the problem that we need to solve”, broadcast the Russian state agency TASS.

Vladimir Putin announced on March 23rd that Moscow is setting a package of payments to ruble, meaning that, as he said, in the future, enemy countries will have to pay gas from Russia with Russian currency.

Serbia is not on the list of countries Moscow described as hostile, following the invasion of Ukraine and imposing sanctions by the West.

According to data from the Republican Energy Agency, Serbia meets about 13 percent of its natural gas needs from domestic production, while the rest is imported by Gazprom company from Russia, via Ukraine and Hungary.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Serbia did not join the sanctions the European Union imposed on Moscow. At the same time, authorities in Serbia backed Ukraine's territorial integrity. On March 2nd, Belgrade voted to adopt a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia's attack on Ukraine. / REL