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More than two months into the invasion of Ukraine, the gas threat has officially been employed by Russia.
In retaliation against western sanctions, Russia, on 27 April, stopped gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for rejecting the former's demand to settle payments in Roubles, Reuters reported.
Bulgargaz is the biggest natural gas distribution company in Bulgaria, while PGNiG is a Polish state-controlled oil and gas company.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen labelled the move "unjustified and unacceptable."
"Gazprom's announcement is another attempt by Russia to blackmail us with gas," she added in a statement on Twitter.
Poland imports 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year and Bulgaria annually imports around 3 bcm of gas.
According to EU data, the former buys more than 45 percent of its natural gas from Russia, while the latter buys just less than 80 percent.
Altogether, the gas imports of Poland and Bulgaria from Russia account for just about 8 percent of total EU imports.
Aound 60 percent of the EU's energy requirements are imported, with Russia being the main exporter.
The EU's energy stocks are only at 33 percent storage capacity, and the European Commission has urged member states to ensure that their capacities are at 80 percent by November.
Both Poland and Bulgaria are apparently being penalised for not giving into Russia's demand for gas payments in roubles.
The demand comes in the backdrop of western sanctions crippling the Russian economy. Payments in roubles would provide a much-needed boost to the country's finance.
Moscow does not want payments in euros or dollars, because those would simply get added to Russia's foreign currency reserves.
Both euros and dollars have been frozen since the beginning of the invasion due to western sanctions.
The motive seems to be two-fold.
On one hand, the restrictions in gas supply will cause intense insecurity to the people of Poland and Bulgaria.
Vladimir Putin may also be thinking that it will also create disunity within a greatly united NATO and EU.
Poland can use alternative routes, two of them, with Germany, and an interconnector with the Czech Republic that can supply an additional 1.5 bcm of gas annually.
In the case of Bulgaria, it could choose to import gas from Greece and Turkey, including LNG (liquefied natural gas).
Tapping into common EU gas purchases is also an option, according to the Bulgarian energy minister.
The construction of the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria is set to be complete in June later this year, which will ensure that Bulgaria can annually import about 1 bcm of gas from Azerbaijan.
European leaders, including the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, have clearly said that they will not succumb to Putin's blackmail.
Additionally, EU officials confirmed earlier this week that any energy company agreeing to open a rouble account in Russia and pay for gas in Russian currency would be violating the collective western sanctions that have been slapped on Moscow.
The decree from the Kremlin, however, decree 172 on Russian gas purchases in roubles, does not prohibit importing countries to ask Gazprom to render the energy purchase as legally complete only after the first payment is done in euros or dollars.
That is the loophole that decree 172 has provided to European buyers like the Austrian oil company OMV and the German energy company Uniper.
A new payment system is in place for buyers that requires the opening of two accounts at Gazprombank.
Euros and dollars would be paid into one account before being converted by the bank into Roubles, and then they would be sent into the second account.
From the second amount, the money would go to Gazprom. Without this process, the buyer would not have fulfilled its legal obligation to pay for Russian gas.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)