According to my news ticker, Western suppliers or states will have to open an account with the Gazprombank, which is exempt from the sanctions anyway, but they can still pay in EUR or USD - the Gazprombank will then convert these foreign currencies into rubles. Italian PM Mario Draghi just came out seconding what German chancellor Olaf Scholz had already said yesterday: that Putin ensured them during a phone call yesterday evening that payments in euro or dollar will still be possible.


If these reports are true, it won't change much for the West and essentially amounts to Putin backtracking. If true, the largest strategic impliciation would be that the West cannot include the Gazprombank in its sanctions in the future without effectively enacting a voluntary oil and gas embargo.

trump supporters putins lickers have big blood on their small hand, i dont understand why we dont deport them immediately, right NOW, in russia, to eat cow dung galettes for the rest of their deplorable lives!.

Cows emposed sanctions and have banned the use of their products uncluding dung

Putin is a major rival to the US and its interests. As a US citizen, I am, as you likely are, a passive participant to that struggle in that it affects us directly. And what I see is despite Russia's languishing in military performance, their economic performance has shown that they indeed do not need the West nearly as much as the West needs them. Putin, ultimately, is winning in the long run. I don't' want that, but that's the reality. And the leaders you vote for are too stupid and hubristic to understand how much of that loss is on them.

This post was edited by Nibthebarb on Mar 31 2022 09:16am

Aljazeera. Ukrainian troops using Red Cross Ambulance automobiles.

1/ to pray that Putin get ousted
2/ to hope some democracy rise and russia opening



You realize that russians are paying taxes only to watch their political leaders & associated oligarches rollin' in 500€M boats ? It's just sick.
Putin is winning in the long run ? Long run doesn't exists, he's 70 old already.

oh man, the trickery is becoming hilarious at this point

but i guess this will serve putin well enough to stabilise the ruble

It will ensure that the Russian central bank, although sanctioned itself, continues to have access to foreign currency to stabilize the ruble and service its outstanding debt with international creditors.
With these shenanigans, the Russians basically replace their own central bank with the non-sanctioned Gazprombank as the intermediary.


I still believe, however, that these provisions are a backpedaling by the Russians. Putin threatened the economic equivalent of the nuclear option, but the West called his bluff, so he came up with this overcomplicated mess. It is a compromise that allows himself, but also Western gas suppliers and politicians, to save face with their respective publics at home.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Mar 31 2022 12:28pm

If Russia turned off the gas to Europe, they'd be screwed and so would Germany, but everyone else would be ok. Was hoping it would happen!

The Italians and several Eastern European states are just as dependent on Russian gas as Germany. Also, the French and Italians and Spanish all depend indirectly on Germany's economic strength because it is basically the only thing keeping the Eurozone together. A huge recession in Germany, with a GDP decline of say 10% within one year, would mean deep deep shit for all of Europe.

Also, it's not like it's only us Germans who are """selfish""" and not willing to make huge economic sacrifices. For example, the Dutch are blocking sanctions to Russian ships (they got the largest ports in Europe) and the Belgians are continuing to import Russian rough diamonds to Antwerp, the largest diamond trading venue in the world. And the list goes on and on.