Western countries can now repay gas debts in foreign reserves

Russia's head of state Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Friday allowing "unfriendly" Western countries to repay their gas debts in currencies from foreign reserves.

However, the repayment of debts will not mean that the supplies of Russian gas will resume, the decree stated.

This new decree amends an earlier decision that required countries deemed by Russia as 'unfriendly' to repay their debts using only rubles.

Over the year, Russia decided to gradually halt its supplies of gas to European states due to western-imposed sanctions over the Ukrainian conflict. It has since then sparked a massive crisis which has caused the cost of living to increase drastically.

The situation is now worsening due to the lack of energy supplies to activate heating systems in homes during winter.

After the West decided to illegally freeze Russian assets, Putin announced on March 31 that "unfriendly countries" are required to pay for gas supplies in rubles.

Gazprom has already halted its shipments to energy companies supplying to Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Latvia and Germany, due to their defiance of the pay-in-ruble system.

In related news, Russia's Finance Ministry earlier today issued a list of conditions for corporations from unfriendly countries to exit from Russia, requiring them to sell their stocks at a 50% discount of their market value.