Foreign buyers given until end of 2025 to arrange payments for Russian gas via Gazprombank

MOSCOW. Sept 22 (Interfax) - Foreign importers will be able to pay for Russian gas via any Russian bank until the end of 2025, not just Gazprombank, which the U.S. added to its sanctions list in November 2024.

On December 19, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree, No. 1080, amending the decree specifying the procedure for foreign importers to pay Russian suppliers for natural gas shipments. The document stipulates that payments can be conducted via a "Russian credit organization", meaning any Russian bank, as opposed to just the "authorized bank [Gazprombank]" stated previously.

Payments via any Russian bank were initially permitted until the end of the first quarter of 2025, whereupon this permission was extended several times.

A new decree, No. 668, was signed on September 22 to extend the permission until December 31, 2025. The document was published online on the official legal information portal.

Gazprombank has said in a commentary that importers of Russian gas had thus been given "an extension, allowing them to obtain the necessary licenses or waive restrictions on using the services of the authorized bank, Gazprombank, within the deadline".