Reuters
Europe decries ‘blackmail’ as Russia cuts gas to Poland, Bulgaria
Russia’s Gazprom cut Poland and Bulgaria off from its gas on Wednesday for refusing to pay in roubles, and threatened to do the same to others, cranking up retaliation for Western sanctions imposed for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Gas prices soared on fears that more states could be hit, notably Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, which last year bought more than half its gas from Russia. President Vladimir Putin’s demand for payment in roubles is designed to soften the effect of Western sanctions that include freezing hundreds of billions of dollars of Russian assets.
