Putin responds to sanctions by forcing "unfriendly" countries to pay for gas in roubles

Twenty-eight days have passed since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. All signs pointed to a swift and surgical operation, but it soon turned out to be a dismal failure for Vladimir Putin's aspirations - a failure caused by poor planning and the unforeseen resilience of Ukrainian forces. These two factors led the Russian president to intensify his offensive on the country's main enclaves.

The Russian army has taken only one oblast capital, Kherson, in almost a month of the invasion. The balance sheet highlights the Kremlin's abysmal planning, characterised by continuous logistical problems, and the tactical victory of the Ukrainian resistance, which was able to contain the Russian advance on several fronts. Seeing its positions threatened, Moscow intensified the siege against cities such as Chernobyl and Kharkov. But the hardest hit enclave has been Mariupol.

Besieged by Russian forces, the port city on the Sea of Azov is the scene of the heaviest attacks. The city has been without basic supplies for days, weeks, and has been reduced to rubble. Residents are trying to leave their homes through one of the nine humanitarian corridors opened on Wednesday to allow the evacuation of civilians and the entry of humanitarian aid. Across the country, the UN estimates that 925 civilians have been killed, 75 of them children.

The Ukrainian army has managed to regain ground in the suburbs of the capital and in the cities of Moshcun and Makariv, while Russian troops are seeking to launch an amphibious assault on Odessa to link the southern corridor and leave Ukraine landlocked. But analysts say the Russian army's advance is stalled.

And Putin remains entrenched. The Russian president does not intend to lift the accelerator of the offensive and the Kremlin is seeking measures to mitigate the reprisals launched by the West. Washington, London and Brussels are tightening the noose against the Russian oligarchs and toughening sanctions against Moscow. A scenario that puts the country on the ropes.

"It makes no sense to supply Russian products to Europe and receive their products in their currency. There will be a change of gas payments to roubles". These were the declarations of Vladimir Putin, who announced on Wednesday that Moscow will demand payment in roubles, the local currency, for energy purchases. A move aimed at bolstering the battered national currency, which has lost 40% of its value.

But the Russian president will not demand payment in roubles from all his buyers, only from those who have been hostile to his campaign of aggression against Ukraine. The Kremlin has drawn up a list of 'unfriendly' countries that includes the US, EU member states, the UK, Japan, Canada, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and Ukraine.

"Russia will, of course, continue to supply natural gas in accordance with the volumes and prices ... fixed in previously concluded contracts," Putin clarified in a televised meeting in the company of his ministers. "The changes will only affect the currency of payment, which will be changed to Russian roubles," he told his government in a message mainly addressed to the European Union.

"A comprehensible and transparent procedure of making payments for foreign buyers, including the purchase of Russian roubles on our domestic currency market, must be created," added Putin, who gave the Central Bank and members of his cabinet a week's deadline to undertake the reform and find channels for energy importers to obtain roubles on the domestic market.

The Russian president also said gas giant Gazprom would be ordered to amend contracts. The private company, run by the Russian state, settles 58% of its sales in euros, 39% in US dollars and around 3% in pounds sterling. In this scenario, Europe's enormous energy dependence on Russia becomes important, as Russian gas accounts for 40 per cent of total gas consumption in the Old Continent.