Russian ruble should be required as payment for more commodities, says top lawmaker

• A top Russian lawmaker said Moscow should demand rubles for exports in addition to natural gas.
• Payments for commodities like wheat, fertilizer, lumber and oil also ought to require rubles, said the State Duma chairman.

Russia should demand ruble payments for a broader range of commodities after demanding the currency for natural gas exports, a top lawmaker said.

The ruble requirement ought to extend to wheat, fertilizer, lumber, oil and other commodities, State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said, echoing President Vladimir Putin, who said last week that Russia would only accept rubles from European countries paying for natural gas.

Sanctions that Western governments imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine froze Moscow's foreign currency holdings, largely blocking transactions in dollars and euros, which dominate international trade transactions.

"You have to pay for your decisions," Volodin said in a Telegram post on Wednesday. "In your effort to isolate us through the politics of sanctions, you isolated yourselves."

So far, European nations have rejected Putin's demand for ruble-only gas transactions. Still, the German government said Wednesday it was preparing for a sudden drop in Russian gas imports in light of Russia's threats to cut off supply.

Russia could leverage its status as a commodities powerhouse to further retaliate against the West. For example, Russia produces around 10% of the world's daily crude oil, and exports around 75% of that total.

The demand for ruble payments in exchange for natural gas has already helped prop up the ruble, which cratered to less than a penny immediately after Russia launched its war on Ukraine.

But now the ruble has returned close to pre-invasion levels, also due in part to optimism from peace talks as well as capital controls by the Russian central bank.