Russia will interrupt the flow of gas to Poland from this Wednesday, after Polish refusal to make import payments in rublesas reported on Tuesday by the Polish state gas company PGNiG.
PGNiG announced in a statement that the cut in the service will take place after the deadline imposed by Moscow for pay energy imports in rubles, which Warsaw refused.
PGNiG alleges that “the suspension of the gas supply is a breach of contract. Therefore, the company will take the appropriate measures to restore the delivery of natural gas under the agreed conditions and reserves the right to claim its contractual rights.”
According to the Polish news portal Onet, there has been a “significant reduction in gas supply” already in recent days on the Russian side.
At the end of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that foreign contractors for the Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom “hostile to the Russian Federation” should pay for imported gas in rubles, but most European Union (EU) countries, including Poland and Germany, did not agree to those terms.
For her part, the Polish Minister of Climate and Environment, Anna Moskwa, assured this Tuesday before the news was known that “Poland has the necessary gas reserves” to “protect the security” of the country.
Moskwa underlined in a message posted on his social networks that Polish gas storage units are at 76% capacity and that Poland “has been (energetically) independent of Russia for years.” “There will be gas in Polish homes,” she concluded in his message.
The Polish government published this Tuesday a list with the names of 50 Russian companies and individuals with business interests in Poland to be targeted for sanctions.
The affected companies, among which is the Polish subsidiary of Gazprom, will have their funds and economic resources frozen and their rights to shares and dividends will be cancelled.