“Most of Russia's key partners have agreed to pay for natural gas supplies in rubles. The refusal of Bulgaria and Poland to do so is their choice,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

In an interview with Al Arabiya TV, Sergei Lavrov said Russia's proposed new gas payment scheme was necessary to prevent "the West from continuing the shameless robbery."

According to him, by freezing half of Russia's foreign exchange reserves of $300 billion, Western countries have misappropriated the money they used to buy Russian blue fuel.

Until the end of March, European companies paid for the gas in dollars and euros, transferring the corresponding amounts to Gazprom's accounts in Western banks.

The new scheme came into force on April 1 and envisions the dollars and euros going to Russian Gazprombank's accounts, which will convert them into rubles on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

Bulgaria and Poland have abandoned the new scheme, and Gazprom has cut off gas supplies to them.

Lavrov said that both countries should put their ideological ambitions above the interests of their people and their budgets, it is their choice.

Russia's foreign minister has accused NATO of obstructing the political settlement of the conflict with Ukraine by sending weapons there.

"The United States and the European Union intend to go to war with Russia to the last Ukrainian," the Russian foreign minister said in an interview with Xinhua, accusing the West of double standards and hypocrisy over the flow of weapons from Poland and other countries to Ukraine.

Sergey Lavrov also believes that negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv on security guarantees could make significant progress if Kyiv was an "honest negotiator". According to him, the Ukrainian representatives are constantly changing their positions.

For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of the risk of interrupting talks, while reaffirming his readiness to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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