BUDAPEST (Reuters – Hungary is planning to pay Russian gas in Euros through Gazprombank. Gazprombank will then convert the payment to roubles, to comply with a new President Vladimir Putin requirement, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced on Monday.

Putin warned Europe that gas supplies could be cut if it doesn’t pay in roubles. He is attempting to retaliate for Western sanctions against Moscow’s invasion.

The scheme would see the Hungarian energy company MVM pay CEE Energy a future bill in euros. Gazprombank will convert it into roubles which Gazprombank then transfers to Russia’s Gazprom.

The European Commission stated that contracts that require payment in dollars or euros should be paid within the next week.

Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary, said that last week Hungary would pay roubles to purchase Russian gas. This was a break with the European Union who has been trying to unite against Moscow’s request for currency payments.

Szijjarto stated that he had a solution for payment in roubles. It does not violate sanctions, but it also secures Hungary’s gas supply.

Szijjarto explained that an option for paying bills in another currency instead of euros was included within a bilateral agreement signed between Gazprom Export and CEE Energy in September. This contract will now be altered to reflect planned changes.

He didn’t go into details and it wasn’t clear if the Russian currency fell would have any effect on the new payment terms.

Szijjarto stated that Hungary, which depends on Russia for the majority of its oil, was opposed to an EU joint approach. Budapest views the matter as bilateral.

Orban, whose administration has had close business relations and ties with Moscow over the past decade, was elected to power for a fourth time in a row last week partly because he pledged to maintain gas supply security for Hungarian households.

Although there are no agreements to prohibit Russian crude oil, it is being suggested that the European Union’s executive drafts proposals for an EU-wide oil embargo.