Satlantas Polres Bogor berlakukan Car Free Night jalur Puncak.
Satlantas Polres Bogor menutup Jalur Puncak dari arah Tol Jagorawi, Sabtu, 31/12/2022, pukul 18.00 WIB. Pengendara yang hendak menuju Puncak dari Jakarta via Tol Jagorawi diarahkan melewati Ciawi.
Meski begitu, Jalur Puncak baru akan benar-benar ditutup pada pukul 22.00 WIB di mana tidak boleh ada pengendara menuju ke arah Puncak untuk mencegah penumpukan kendaraan.
“Malam ini Jalur Puncak diberlakukan Car Free Night. Dari jam 6 sore ini, kendaraan dari arah Tol Jagorawi yang mau melintasi Puncak diarahkan lewat Ciawi. Masih boleh naik, sampai jam 10 malam,” kata Direktur Regident Korlantas Polri, Brigjen Pol Yusri Yunus.
Menurutnya, masyarakat yang hendak menuju kawasan Puncak agar mengatur waktu perjalanannya, agar tidak perlu mencari jalan lain, saat penutupan total diterapkan mulai pukul 22.00 WIB.
Sementara Kasat Lantas Polres Bogor, AKP Dicky Pranata menjelaskan, penutupan jalan hanya berlaku untuk kendaraan menuju kawasan Puncak. Sementara kendaraan menuju arah Jakarta, tetap diperbolehkan melintas.
“Sepeda motor pun tetap diperbolehkan melintas. Jalur-jalur alternatif tetap dapat dipergunakan. Namun, mulai pukul 22.00 WIB Jalur Puncak steril dari kendaraan yang menuju ke atas,” tegas Dicky.
Bagi kendaraan yang hendak menuju Cianjur atau Bandung, akan diarahkan melalui jalur alternatif Jonggol atau Sukabumi.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has passed away at the age of 95, Director of the Holy See Press Office Matteo Bruni said on Saturday.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the Bavarian-born theologian whose conservative Roman Catholicism earned him the nickname “God’s Rottweiler” and who shocked his flock by suddenly resigning the papacy after just eight years, died Saturday, the Vatican said.
His death was announced in Rome on Dec. 31. His funeral Mass will be held on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican said.
The Vatican press office director, Matteo Bruni, said Dec. 31: “With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican.”
Benedict XVI’s body will lie in state in St. Peter’s Basilica beginning on Jan. 2, 2023.
Bruni told journalists in a news briefing Dec. 31 that Benedict received the sacrament of anointing of the sick on Dec. 28.
The solemn funeral Mass will be on Jan. 5, 2023, at 9:30 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square, with Pope Francis presiding.
“In accordance with the wish of the pope emeritus, the funeral will be carried out under the sign of simplicity,” Bruni said.
You can watch EWTN’s live coverage of Benedict’s death from Rome here.
Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, he was elected to the papacy in April 2005, taking the name Benedict XVI, after decades of service to the Catholic Church as a theologian, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, cardinal, and one of the closest collaborators of St. John Paul II, whom he succeeded as pope.
On Feb. 11, 2013, the 85-year-old Benedict shocked the world with a Latin-language announcement of his retirement, becoming the first pope in 600 years to do so. He cited his advanced age and his lack of strength as unsuitable to the exercise of his office.
Widely recognized as one of the Catholic Church's top theologians, Benedict’s pontificate was marked by a profound understanding of the challenges to the Church in the face of growing ideological aggression, not least from an increasingly secular Western mindset, both within and outside the Church. He famously warned about the “dictatorship of relativism” in a homily just before the conclave in 2005 that elected him pope.
Born in a small village in Bavaria called Marktl am Inn on April 16, 1927, the future pope grew up in a region of Germany long known as a stronghold of Marian devotion and piety. He was the third and youngest child of Joseph and Maria Ratzinger.
His youth in the nearby Bavarian town of Traunstein was overshadowed by the rise of the Nazi party, a regime he called “sinister” and that “banished God and thus became impervious to anything true and good.”
After a brief forced conscription of two months into the German army at the end of the Second World War, Ratzinger and his older brother, Georg, resumed their studies for the priesthood, first in Freising and then in Munich.
Ordained a priest with his brother on June 29, 1951, Ratzinger finished his doctoral studies in theology and became a university teacher and vice president at the prestigious University of Regensburg in Bavaria. His reputation as an intellectual prompted an invitation to serve as an expert, or peritus, at the Second Vatican Council from Cardinal Joseph Frings, the archbishop of Cologne. He rapidly distinguished himself as an eminent theologian.
In 1977, Pope Paul VI named him archbishop of Munich and Freising and, later that same year, gave him the cardinal’s red hat.
Just four years later, in 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed Ratzinger as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the department of the Vatican dedicated to promoting and defending the teachings of the Catholic faith. He held the post until the death of John Paul II in 2005.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called Benedict a “giant of faith and reason” that history will never forget. Olaf Scholz, chancellor of his native Germany, said Benedict was a “formative figure of the Catholic Church.”
Benedict took the title pope emeritus and continued to wear the papal white. But he returned the Ring of the Fisherman, which traditionally is ceremonially destroyed with a blow from a hammer after a pope dies. And he asked that he be addressed as Father Benedict.
The former pope also maintained a cordial relationship with Francis. Both men were beaming when they embraced Dec. 8, 2015, before opening the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica to mark the start of the Catholic Holy Year, or Jubilee. In June 2016, Francis kissed Benedict on both cheeks to help celebrate the 65th anniversary of the former pope’s ordination.
Over a series of conversations, Benedict, played by Anthony Hopkins, confesses that he can no longer hear God’s words and his belief that perhaps Bergoglio should succeed him as the only man who might be able to shatter the Vatican bureaucracy and reform the institution.
Change is needed, Benedict says, but “change is compromising,” and he is incapable of compromising. “For my entire life, I have been alone, but never lonely, until now,” he says.
In his New Year message to Russian servicemen on Saturday, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in particular, signaled Moscow's readiness to fight for the right to speak Russian.
In his New Year message to the Russian servicemen, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu thanked them for their courage and heroism in the performance of military duty during Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, and wished them clear skies.
Shoigu also pointed to "serious trials that have changed the usual course of time" in 2022.
"The outgoing year will forever go down in the military chronicles of the Fatherland, filled with your immortal deeds, selfless courage and heroism in the fight against neo-Nazism and terrorism. I thank you all for your service and loyalty to the oath!" the Russian defense minister stressed.
"The outgoing year will forever go down in the military chronicles of the Fatherland, filled with your immortal deeds, selfless courage and heroism in the fight against neo-Nazism and terrorism. I thank you all for your service and loyalty to the oath!" the Russian defense minister stressed.
He recalled that external forces are now trying to cross out the glorious history and great achievements of Russia as they demolish monuments to the winners over fascism and place war criminals on pedestals. According to Shoigu, everything that is related to Russia is canceled and defiled.
Under such circumstances, Shoigu stressed, the New Year remains not only a good tradition, but also acquires a deep meaning, becoming a symbol of hope for a peaceful future.
He also praised Russian soldiers for “heroically fulfilling combat missions to protect the national interests and security of Russia,” adding that they are celebrating the coming New Year away from their relatives as they resolve “the most difficult tasks in the course of the special military operation.”
"In the coming year, I want to wish everyone good health, fortitude, reliable and devoted comrades and, of course, clear skies! Our victory, like the New Year, is inevitable!" Shoigu emphasized.
Earlier this month, he said that the main task for 2023 is the continuation of the special operation in Ukraine until the full implementation of all its tasks.
The beginning of the operation was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, after the Donbass republics appealed for help in defending themselves against Kiev's attacks.
How the USSR Changed the Face of the World
On December 30, 2022, Russians and others across the globe commemorated the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). How did the 70 years of the USSR change the world?
"It was the world’s first socialist country, a system based on public ownership, state planning, social welfare and egalitarianism," Geoffrey Roberts, professor of history at University College Cork, Ireland, and a leading scholar on Soviet diplomatic and military history, said.
"It showed that such a system was not utopian but a practical possibility; indeed, at times the Soviet system threatened to economically outperform even the most advanced capitalist countries."
"The Bolsheviks succeeded in building a world industrial power, one that defeated Nazi Germany and then fought the United States to a standstill during the Cold War: a system that created the military, economic, scientific, technical and cultural power that underpins the strength of contemporary Russia," the professor continued.
The USSR was formed following the end of the Russian Civil War (1918-1922) and accompanying foreign intervention. On December 30, 1922, the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republics united into one state with a single political body in the capital of Moscow. Other Soviet republics which used to be parts of the Russian Empire joined the USSR in the coming years. The USSR established control over the territory the Russian Empire had amassed by 1917 (excluding Finland, part of the Polish kingdom and some other territories).
The young Soviet state was founded in a highly contested and hostile environment. Western nations refused to recognize the USSR for years. As a Canadian historian told Sputnik in 2015, the European and US elites sought to overthrow the Soviet government "from day one," as the latter promoted an alternative to capitalism and western hegemony. Western countries subsidized and armed the anti-Soviet White movement; dispatched sizable military forces to thwart the Soviets during the Civil War; and waged a broad economic war against Moscow.
Nonetheless, the USSR continued to develop and increase its industrial production by almost 13 times during the first 30 years of the country's existence. By the time of the Second World War, 9,000 large industrial enterprises had been built in the USSR. New industries were created from scratch including machine tool building, tractor building, chemical industry, and aircraft building.
The Soviet collectivization ensured modernization and mechanization of agricultural labor, improved food supplies across the country and solved the famine problem, which haunted Russia since the end of the 19th century. Strategic food reserves were also created in the country.
In addition, the USSR applied vast social reforms by promoting gender equality; ensuring eight-hour working days and annual paid leave; institutionalizing the right to free general and vocational education, the right to work and the right to free medical care for all citizens, to name but a few. Some of these reforms were implemented for the first time in history.
When it comes to the USSR's foreign policy, its contribution to global decolonization could hardly be overestimated: the peoples of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America cooperated with the USSR and received humanitarian and military aid from Moscow.
Besides that, it was the USSR that helped
Turkey leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to counter the advance of the Greek, British, French, and Italian interventionists in 1920-1922. Therefore, the 11-meter-high Republic Monument (Cumhuriyet Aniti) at Taksim Square, Istanbul, portrays Semyon Aralov, ambassador of the Russian SFSR in Ankara during the Turkish War of Independence, behind Ataturk. Also on display are the two high-ranking Soviet officers Marshal Kliment Voroshilov and General Mikhail Frunze. The monument was erected to honor the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923.
It was likewise the USSR that helped China end the infamous "century of humiliation" – a term used in the country to describe the period of intervention and subjugation of the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China by western powers and Japan from 1839 to 1949. The Soviet Union also backed the Chinese Communist Party's struggle and the foundation of the People's Republic of China.
It was the USSR that defeated Nazism in 1945, together with its allies, and lost around 27 million people in the Second World War to liberate the continent from this monstrous ideology and its military machine.
Despite some western experts' claims that the USSR always sought to foment global revolution, Vladimir Lenin's successor, Joseph Stalin, abandoned the idea of the "world revolution" in the 1920s, promoting instead the concept of "socialism in a single country" within the boundaries of the USSR. His vision became the official doctrine after the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b) in 1925.
According to Roberts, the USSR's indisputable achievements included "multinationalism, internationalism, and anti-imperialism; its idealism and egalitarian aspirations; above all, its valorization of peaceful coexistence between different peoples, systems and values."
USSR's Disintegration
However, following 70 years of its rise and development, the USSR collapsed. What was behind this and was it inevitable?
The Soviet people had grown disenchanted with the Communist idea because of the party's "nomenclature" corruption, rigid command economy, and lack of freedoms, according to Edward Lozansky, president of the American University in Moscow.
"The Soviet Union managed to survive for 69 years, despite huge human and material losses and devastation caused by WW2," Lozansky said. "Actually, it could continue to exist for some time but several factors like an arms race with the West, economic inefficiency and the Gorbachev factor who naively tried to combine communism with freedom, ended this experiment."
"The West, and first of all the United States, had a unique chance to turn free-from-communist Russia into its most important ally. [Mikhail] Gorbachev, and all Russian leaders who followed him, including [Vladimir] Putin, plus the overwhelming majority of Russian people, were ready for integration with the West, but Washington was not interested. Instead, it had chosen the role of the world's hegemonic leader - thus squandering the historical opportunity for US-Russia, and more broadly, East-West win-win cooperation, and here we are - on the edge of the abyss," the academic continued.
The collapse of the USSR was not inevitable, let alone its swift defragmentation, believes Roberts. "Not long before the USSR collapsed, Gorbachev staged a referendum on the continuation of a multinational Soviet state – a goal that was endorsed by the great majority of voters," he emphasized.
However, the country was largely exhausted by the arms race, initiated by the US-led NATO bloc. The resulting imbalances and wastefulness of the Soviet economy demanded new approaches and flexibility.
At that time, prominent US economist and Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics Wassily Leontief (1906-1999) compared the USSR's economy to a yacht that was unable to catch the wind. The Soviet economy was doomed to further recession, restrained by excessive government interference and regulation, he suggested in his essays.
The US economy, however, was not in its best shape either. In January 1989, the famous Trilateral Commission's leaders undertook a mission to Moscow to meet Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The group and Gorbachev discussed the issue of coexistence as well as a roadmap of the USSR's integration into the world economy.
"We are all at a crucial stage — both capitalism and socialism," Gorbachev noted at that time. "The two systems should show they can adapt to new conditions," he added. According to western media, Gorbachev’s eschewal of the use of force helped end the decades-long Cold War.
Eventually, the two nuclear powers voluntarily agreed to stop the arms race and end the standoff. It was the time when major western leaders promised Gorbachev and other Soviet officials that NATO would not further expand eastward. The Washington-based non-profit, the National Security Archive, published in December 2017 declassified bombshell documents that indicated that US Secretary of State James Baker and leaders of the UK, France, and Germany indeed provided that pledge.
Nonetheless, the subsequent geopolitical changes and defragmentation of the USSR, caused by internal separatism and economic crisis, prompted the West to reconsider its approach. US President George H.W. Bush claimed in January 1992 that "by the grace of God, America won the Cold War," while President Bill Clinton "okayed" the expansion of NATO in 1997 despite 50 prominent foreign policy experts warning the US president in June 1997 that the expansion of NATO would eventually "unsettle European stability".
Instead of integrating Russia into the world's economy on an equal basis, the West has seen it as just "raw-material appendage" and an open market for the past 30 years. Hence, Russia's attempt to secure its borders and national interests in February 2022 prompted a fierce backlash from the West in the form of sweeping sanctions and a NATO proxy war in Ukraine.
Nonetheless, Russia, as it did 100 years ago, is set to withstand the pressure. The Soviet experiment and its best practices proved that Russia could not only be self-sustainable but is also able to maintain vast international alliances across the world.
"Another measure of the deep roots of Soviet patriotism is its continuation in contemporary Russia," said Roberts. "As a multinational state, the Russian Federation is the direct successor of the USSR – a Russia that is headed by a president – Vladimir Putin – who continues to promote citizenship and patriotism as the foundation of the system, albeit one that is also conservative and capitalist."
Penjemputan dilakukan manajemen Angkasa Pura I Bandara Ahmad Yani karena akses jalan masuk menuju bandara masih terendam banjir. (suaramerdeka.com/Dok)
Cuaca buruk di Kota Semarang, Jawa Tengah (Jateng), membuat bencana banjir yang berdampak pada aktivitas penerbangan di Bandara Internasional Jenderal Ahmad Yani Semarang. Bahkan, sejumlah maskapai penerbangan pun terpaksa harus menunda keberangkatan pesawatnya dari Semarang, hari Sabtu, 31/12/2022.
Seharusnya saya terbang pukul 11.40 WIB, tapi saat ini pesawat masih di Jakarta dan baru jalan ke sini. Alasannya karena cuaca buruk,” ujar seorang penumpang pesawat di Bandara Ahmad Yani Semarang, Jerica Deasy, kepada Solopos.com, hari Sabtu siang.
Perempuan yang karib disapa Jeje ini mengaku berencana terbang ke Jakarta untuk menjalankan pekerjaan yang berkaitan dengan perayaan malam tahun baru. Ia mengaku sempat kaget saat berangkat menuju ke bandara menyusul kondisi banjir yang melanda Kota Semarang.
“Ini gila. Sepinggang lo [banjir]. Saya baru tahu banjir semacam ini bisa terjadi di Semarang,” ujarnya.
Jeje mengaku berdasarkan informasi yang diterimanyaa, banjir itu terjadi akibat ada tanggul yang jebol sehingga air meluap hingga ke wilayah perkotaan. “Saya tanya petugas DPU, katanya ada tanggul jebol sehingga airnya meluber sampai ke sini,” ujarnya.
Sementara itu, dari rilis Laporan Situasi Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah (BPBD) Kota Semarang tercatat 28 titik mengalami banjir, 18 titik tanah atau talud longsor, 15 titik gelombang tinggi, dan satu titik gelombang pasang di kawasan Pantai Marina, Kecamatan Semarang Barat.
“BPBD sudah melakukan beberapa upaya seperti mendirikan dapur umum, melakukan dropping 500 bungkus nasi, menutup sembilan titik talud yang jebol, dan melakukan evakuasi di seluruh kompleks Marina,” tulis siaran pers BPBD Kota Semarang.
Sementara itu, General Manager PT Angkasa Pura (AP) I Bandara Internasional Jenderal Ahmad Yani Semarang, Hardi Ariyanto, dalam keterangan tertulisnya pihak Bandara Internasional Jenderal Ahmad Yani Semarang mengaku saat ini bandaranya sudah beroperasi secara normal setelah sejumlah penerbangan mengalami delay akibat tingginya curah hujan dan cuaca buruk sejak hari Jumat, 30/12/2022. Ia juga memastikan seluruh pendukung penerbangan aman untuk operasional penerbangan.
Kendati demikian, hingga Sabtu pukul 12.00 WIB, terdapat 13 penerbangan yang terdampak baik kedatangan maupun keberangkatan dengan rute dari dan ke Jakarta, Balikapapan, Ketapang, dan Banjarmasin. Selain keterlambatan keberangkatan, terdapat satu penerbangan dari Banjarmasin yang dialihkan ke Surabaya.
“Mengingat curah hujan masih tinggi dan terdapat genangan air di beberapa titik lokasi pada jalan menuju dan dari bandara, kami mengimbau kepada pengguna jasa untuk tetap berhati-hati,” ujar Hardi.
Stasiun Tawang Semarang Tergenang Banjir
Banjir juga menggenangi Stasiun Tawang Semarang tergenang. Banjir setinggi mata kaki setelah hujan deras mengguyur Kota Semarang, hari Sabtu siang, 31/12/2022. Banjir tersebut tak mengganggu jadwal kereta api (KA).
Kondisi Banjir di Jalan Gajah Kota Semarang, Sabtu, 31 Desember 2022. Foto Jamal Abdun Nasr
Manager Humas KAI Daerah Operasi 4 Semarang Ixfan Hendri Wintoko mengatakan pihaknya tengah berupaya mengurai dampak banjir. "Kami berkomitmen untuk senantiasa mengutamakan keselamatan, keamanan, dan kenyamanan perjalanan kereta api," kata Ixfan di Semarang, Sabtu, 31 Desember 2022.
Banjir juga menggenangi beberapa titik di jalur kereta api lintas utara Pulau Jawa. Hal itu menyebabkan kereta api yang akan melintas harus tertahan atau berjalan dengan pembatasan kecepatan tertentu sehingga mengalami keterlambatan.
Ada dua titik jalur yang tidak bisa dilalui perjalanan kereta api. Pertama di petak jalan Semarang Tawang-Alastua Kota Semarang karena ada genangan air setinggi 12 sentimeter di atas kop rel. Kemudian petak jalan Kaliwungu-Kalibodri Kabupaten Kendal karena Sungai Waridin meluap mengakibatkan gogosan pada jalur rel KA di wilayah tersebut.
Hingga kini ada empat perjalanan kereta yang mengalami keterlambatan, yaitu KA 186 Kamandaka relasi Tegal-Semarang Tawang terlambat 117 menit. KA 263 Menoreh relasi Semarang Tawang-Jakarta Kota terlambat 140 menit.
Selanjutnya KA 189 Joglosemarkerto relasi Solo Balapan-Tegal terlambat 52 menit. Serta KA 267A Ambarawa Ekspress dengan relasi Surabaya Pasarturi-Semarang Poncol terlambat 34 menit.
"Kami atas nama Manajemen KAI mengucapkan permohonan maaf kepada para pelanggan karena terganggunya perjalanan dan pelayanan kereta api akibat banjir yang terjadi wilayah Semarang, Kendal, dan sekitarnya," ucap dia.
Banjir yang merendam lima kecamatan di Kota Semarang, Jawa Tengah (Jateng) akibat hujan deras sejak hari Jumat malam, 30/12/2022.
Sekdakot Semarang, Iswar Aminudin mengatakan bahwa, hujan deras sempat membuat hampir di semua wilayah Kota Semarang terjadi banjir.
"Hampir semua wilayah Kota Semarang terendam tapi sekarang mulai surut," jelasnya.
Laporan yang dia terima, saat ini wilayah yang terendam banjir tinggal beberapa titik seperti Kecamatan Genuk, Kecamatan Mangkang, Kecamatan Pedurungan, Kecamatan Ngaliyan (Wonosari) dan Semarang Utara.
"Tinggal beberapa lokasi yang tergenang banjir, hanya beberapa titik karena cekungan," ujarnya. Dia menjelaskan, untuk kondisi genangan di pusat Kota Semarang sudah mulai kering karena airnya sudah berhasil dialirkan ke rumah pompa.
"Drainase kita sudah cukup mengalirkan air dari pusat kota ke pompa-pompa air," jelasnya.
Sampai saat ada beberapa titik seperti di Pedurungan dan Genuk yang warganya sudah dilakukan evakuasi ke tempat yang lebih aman. "Untuk Mangkang belum ada informasi yang masuk soal warga yang dievakuasi," imbuhnya
Untuk itu, dia mengimbau kepada warga Kota Semarang agar tetap waspada dengan hujan ekstrem selama beberapa hari yang akan datang.
"Bersihkan sampah di selokan. Selain itu warga yang tinggal di bukit juga hati-hati longsor. Kalau ada retakan segera lapor," imbuhnya
Russian natural gas suppliers may settle with gas buyers from unfriendly countries in foreign currency if they collect debts for gas supplies from such buyers or if they repay the debt themselves, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree, published on Friday on the legal information portal.
The decree specifies that settlements can be made in a foreign currency, using a special account opened by an authorized bank on the basis of the application of the Russian supplier. Indebtedness for gas supplies will be considered as repaid after crediting the foreign buyer on such account.
At the same time, the document said that "the repayment of the foreign buyer's debt under the contract for the supply of natural gas is not a ground for resuming natural gas supplies by the Russian supplier in case the foreign buyer fails to comply with the procedure established by this decree".
Putin shocked the European gas market at the end of March by signing a decree that ordered a full switch to ruble payments for Russian pipeline gas amid the Kremlin's standoff with the western nations over the invasion of Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin allowed natural-gas buyers from 'unfriendly' countries to pay debts for fuel in foreign currency, partly lifting a requirement for ruble-only payments.
Repayment of debt doesn't provide grounds for a resumption of Russian gas supplies to buyers that don't comply with other requirements of a presidential decree issued earlier this year, according to amendments published late Friday.
Supplies were subsequently cut off to some companies and countries, such as Poland and Finland, that refused the terms of the decree, which was seen as a means to spur demand for rubles after the United States and the European Union implemented stiff economic sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Putin's decree meant that buyers of Russian gas in Europe -- all EU countries were included in the "unfriendly" category -- had to buy rubles on the Russian market to pay for supplies.
The president defended the policy by saying that Western countries had “canceled the confidence in its currencies" by imposing sanctions on Russia for the war against Ukraine.
The change announced on December 30 to allow debt settlement does not automatically mean the resumption of gas supplies, according to the information published.
Putin previously ordered the central bank and the government to develop "the order of transactions for the purchase of rubles on the domestic market of the Russian Federation by gas buyers."
Russian gas giant Gazprom PJSC halted gas supplies to clients in Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as supplies to Germany under a contract with Shell Energy Europe, after companies refused to comply with the decree. Other European companies opened special ruble and foreign-currency accounts at Gazprombank JSC, which was authorized to handle payments for natural gas.
Payment for Russian gas
Since April 1, buyers from unfriendly countries could pay for Russian gas only in rubles. However, taking into account the currency of contracts (which are usually dollars and euros), Moscow made a concession to its counterparts:
Customers would have to transfer money in foreign currencies to Gazprombank, which would buy rubles at stock exchanges and transfer them to special rubles accounts of importers to be paid from. At the same time, Russia will continue to supply gas in the volumes and at the prices fixed in the contracts concluded earlier.
The European Commission initially considered this scheme as a violation of the sanctions. However, as Bloomberg reported, the European Commission circulated new regulations according to which European importers would be able to continue paying for Russian gas without violating the sanctions imposed on Moscow, and open bank accounts for settlements in the currency stipulated by the contracts.
Gazprom supplies gas for Europe through Ukraine equaling 41.2 mln cubic meters via Sudzha
Gazprom supplies gas for Europe through Ukraine in the volume of 41.2 mln cubic meters per day via the Sudzha gas pumping station, a Gazprom representative told reporters, adding that the request for pumping through Sokhranovka had been rejected by the Ukrainian side.
"Gazprom supplies Russian gas for transit through Ukrainian territory via the Sudzha gas pumping station in the volume of 41.2 mln cubic meters confirmed by the Ukrainian side as of December 31. The request for the Sokhranovka gas pumping station has been rejected," he said.
On Friday, December 30, the pumping volume equaled 42.4 mln cubic meters.
Earlier it was reported on the website of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) that the transit of gas through Ukrainian territory might total around 42.4 mln cubic meters on December 31.
