Banks of ‘unfriendly countries’ delay payments for Russian energy: Putin

Banks of “unfriendly countries” are delaying payments for Russian energy, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

“There are failures in payment for export deliveries of Russian energy resources. Banks from these most unfriendly countries are delaying the transfer of payments,” he said at a meeting on the situation in the oil and gas sector.

The president recalled that the task had already been set to switch settlements to the national currency, to gradually move away from the US dollar and the euro.

The Russian foreign exchange market must be prepared for a radical increase in the share of settlements in national currencies in Russia’s foreign trade so that any of these currencies can be free and in the right amount exchanged for Russian rubles, this is a strategic task,