Russia's top lawmaker Vyacheslav Volodin warned the European Union on Wednesday that if it wanted Russian natural gas then it would have to pay in rubles, and cautioned that oil, grain, metals, fertiliser, coal and timber exports could also soon be priced in rubles.
"If you want gas, find rubles," Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, said in a post.
"Moreover, it would be right - where it is beneficial for our country, to widen the list of export products priced in roubles to include: fertiliser, grain, food oil, oil, coal, metals, timber etc."
After the West imposed crippling sanctions on Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered that natural gas exported to Europe or the United States be paid for in rubles.
Energy ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations rejected the demand for roubles, Germany's Robert Habeck said. French President Emmanuel Macron also told Putin it would not be possible.
