Government activates emergency plan to manage supplies and pleads with households and industry to be sparing with usage
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he expects his country will continue to be able to pay for Russian gas in euros from Friday, after Vladimir Putin signed a decree threatening to enforce rouble payments from “unfriendly countries” and raising fears Moscow could be about to throttle gas supplies.
Energy contracts between Germany and Russia stipulated payments in euros, sometimes in dollars, Scholz said at a press conference in Berlin on Thursday, shortly after the Kremlin announced Putin had signed the decree. “In a conversation with the Russian president I have stated clearly that this will stay that way.”
