Gazprombank, Russia’s key bank that handles European gas payments, has reportedly declined several payment attempts for April and May gas deliveries to Germany and Austria even though they were made through a ruble account. The bank rejected the transaction because the attempted payments came from a former Russian trading firm that was nationalized in Germany, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The Gazprom Marketing & Trading Limited (GM&T) had been controlled by Russia’s Gazprom Germania Group before April 4, when Berlin’s Economy Minister Robert Habeck announced that the subsidiary would come under the trusteeship of the German energy regulator until September 30.