[usr1106]

I think that's not completely obvious how it works at the moment. Russia has unilaterally required payments in Rubles despite long-term contracts saying something else. Some smaller countries have refused and got cut of any deliveries. EU has generally declared not to pay in Rubles, but I don't know what e.g. Germany does at the moment. There is no realistic exchange rate for the Ruble because Western companies don't want to touch it and Russian companies have been forced to buy Rubles for most of the foreign currency they get.

[erichocean]

> Russia has unilaterally required payments in Rubles despite long-term contracts saying something else.

Yeah, that's how sanctions work: unilaterally.

[usr1106]

Sanctions would be stop selling gas. Just saying look we have this contract, we want to continue with it, but we change the terms without asking sounds something else.

To make priorities clear: Attack war is a crime and Putin, his government, and army leaders belong to Den Haag and then into prison.

But every westerner continuing to drive their car, fly to holidays and other wasteful lifestyle activites makes energy prizes go up and pays for Russia's war. Europeans a bit more directly than Americans, but in the end we have a global market so nobody goes free of reponsibility. Nothing they will end up in court for (would be a miracle if even Putin did, Bush and Blair didn't for doing not too differently), but certainly morally wrong.

Haven't checked recently but a month ago or so it was said Russia earns more money for oil and gas than in February, despite the volume having decreased quite a bit.

[s1artibartfast]

There is a lot of ongoing development on this front, although it has largely fallen out of the US media.1[1]

It looks like Russia is also only accepting rubles for wheat [2].

This is the obvious and natural result from the sanctions. OF course they will not accept a currency they can not spend anywhere.

[1] https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/russia-insisting-paymen...

>The EU’s executive body told the EU governments in a closed meeting that the authorities were not preventing companies from opening accounts with Gazprombank and would allow them to buy gas in line with EU sanctions.

>The EU will get a taste of what this means as Russia is turning off the still-operating Nordstream 1 pipeline for ‘routine scheduled maintenance’ from next Monday, July 11th to July 21st.

[2] https://dailytimes.com.pk/962297/russia-imposes-ruble-restri...

[sesm]

> Russian companies have been forced to buy Rubles for most of the foreign currency they get.

This restriction has been removed couple of weeks ago. At first it was 80%, then 40%, now it’s gone.

[usr1106]

Ok, I don't follow the details so closely, I assume you are correct.

Which Russian companies still have significant income in foreign currency? I thought trade has mostly stopped. Except for energy, but that is dealt with in a different way anyway as discussed above, because still excluded from sanctions from the West and the Ruble requirement from Russia.

Then there is of course China and India which seem to intensify trade. No idea what currency they pay in and whether the increase has already been significant during 4 months.