Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has been reassuring about the possibility of cutting off Russian gas flows to Europe, saying Moscow’s demand for ruble payments is not an obstacle.
In particular, as reported by Reuters, speaking to reporters during his visit to the US, Mr. Draghi said that “in fact, most of the gas importers have already opened accounts in rubles with Gazprom.”
It is recalled that Russian President Putin issued a decree requiring “unfriendly countries” to open new accounts in Gazprombank, through which their payments in euros or dollars for gas will be converted into rubles.
For its part, the European Commission had warned that compliance with Putin’s plan could violate EU sanctions, but Draghi said it was a “gray area” without a formal decision on the issue.
As the Italian Prime Minister specifically said, “there is no official statement on what constitutes a breach of sanctions, no one has ever said anything about whether the payments in rubles violate the sanctions or not, about how these payments are organized, that’s why it’s such a gray area. here”.
In fact, he added that he believes that the largest importer of natural gas in Germany has already made payments under the new scheme in rubles, although he did not name the company to which he referred.
As he added, in his meeting with US President Joe Biden yesterday, “they agreed, as a general assessment, on the need to have a ceiling on the price of gas.”
However, he noted that “even before the start of the war, prices did not correspond to the supply-demand ratio”.
Referring to the proposal for a gas price ceiling, the Italian Prime Minister stressed that “some countries in Europe may have a different view, but Italy will continue to advocate this position.”
“Russia is no longer Goliath”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Draghi said, “Russia is no longer Goliath. The one that looked like a superpower, impossible to defeat on the battlefield and with conventional weapons, is no longer invincible.”
He stressed that in his meeting with Joe Biden “they agreed that Ukraine should continue to receive support and at the same time put pressure on Moscow, but that there is also a need to start wondering how peace is built.”
“What is a victory should be said by Ukrainian President Zelensky, not us,” said the Italian prime minister.
Source: Capital
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