“Gazprom” will determine in the coming days the aspects related to the transition to payment for Russian gas in rubles, this information will be communicated to fuel buyers, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Asked by Interfax to comment on statements by EU officials about the impossibility of paying for gas imported from Russia in rubles, Peskov said: “There is an instruction to Gazprom from the Russian president to accept payment in rubles. Within a week, or rather already within the actual remaining four days, Gazprom will have to make contacts, develop a clear and transparent system on how this can be done technically and logistically.”

“This information will be communicated to the buyers of Gazprom’s products, and then we will see,” Peskov said, adding that “we are proceeding from the current instruction of the head of state.”

To a clarifying question whether the decision to pay in rubles applies to liquefied natural gas, Peskov said: “The president did not differentiate pipeline and LNG in any way. But the instruction was to Gazprom, which means that in this case there was no instruction to NOVATEK.”

Peskov also noted that Novatek “could hardly have been given a direct instruction.” “It was a directive to Gazprom. “Gazprom” is an international company, but its main owner is the state, so such a directive was given to Gazprom. The president did not say anything about Novatek,” Peskov noted.