Putin says «unfriendly countries» have to pay for Russian gas in rubles

Moscow, March 23 - Neftegaz.RU. Gas futures in Europe spiked after the Russian president made the announcement.
Vladimir Putin said:

• I have decided to implement a set of measures to transfer payments for our gas supplies to unfriendly countries into Russian rubles
• Stop using the compromised currencies in such transactions
• Russia will continue, of course, to supply natural gas in accordance with volumes and prices… fixed in previously concluded contracts

58% of Gazprom’s gross gas sales were in euro, around 39% were in U.S. dollars and sterling around 3%.
The Putin´s statement means that countries who have imposed sanctions on Russia will have to buy rubles at rates fixed by Russia's Central bank to pay for the natural gas delivered from Russia.

Putin said the government and Central bank had 1 week to come up with a solution on how to move these operations into the Russian currency and that gas giant Gazprom would be ordered to make the corresponding changes to gas contracts.

To reduce the region’s reliance on Russian energy will likely take years.

Russia calls its military actions in Ukraine a special operation to disarm and «denazify» its neighbour.