This was the only and inevitable move Putin could have made. If you sell stuff to a person, and then they have the ability to thieve back whatever they paid you immediately (aka a currency seizure via the sanction tools) while still keeping the stuff you sold them, then you have had all your stuff stolen. That's no deal - who donates energy as a charitable act to nations that hate you?

So this notion that 'refusal to pay in rubles' was ever going to happen was as laughable as expecting all the western economies in the eurobloc to shut down that are dependent on russian energy.

France and Germany can now pretend to have maintained this 'tough stance' while all the while bowing to Putins demand. A problem entirely of their own making that they paid the price for, like fools.

This was the only and inevitable move Putin could have made. If you sell stuff to a person, and then they have the ability to thieve back whatever they paid you immediately (aka a currency seizure via the sanction tools) while still keeping the stuff you sold them, then you have had all your stuff stolen. That's no deal - who donates energy as a charitable act to nations that hate you?

So this notion that 'refusal to pay in roubles' was ever going to happen was as laughable as expecting all the western economies in the eurobloc to shut down that are dependent on russian energy.

France and Germany can now pretend to have maintained this 'tough stance' while all the while bowing to Putins demand. A problem entirely of their own making that they paid the price for, like fools.