Vladimir Putin threatens to cut gas to Europe tomorrow Business

Customers seeking to submit meter readings in a last-ditch attempt to save money ahead of the hike have been foiled after the websites of British Gas, SSE, E.ON and EDF crashed. British Gas later said it would accept photographs of meter readings sent in the next few days.

Energy companies have blamed Martin Lewis for the problems after the consumer champion encouraged people to submit their meter readings ahead of the price hike.

Mr Lewis called their claims “laughable”.

Mr Putin has repeatedly demanded that countries pay for their gas in rubles, but Western countries have refused to do so.

Details of the Russian leader’s decree suggest he partially backed down by offering a compromise mechanism that would allow gas buyers to continue paying for supplies in euros and dollars. These will then be converted into rubles by Gazprombank.

It was unclear on Thursday evening whether Western countries were ready to accept the proposal.

Leon Izbicki, natural gas analyst at Energy Aspects, said: “Our view is that the decree limits the risk of a complete shutdown of Russian flows. This is the compromise we expected. It’s a way for both parties to save face.

“On the one hand, Russia can always say that payments will ultimately be made in rubles, while at the same time the European side can say, well, from a technical point of view, payments are always made in euros and dollars. Americans.”

Mr Putin said “Russia values ​​its commercial reputation” and insisted the country would continue to supply gas to the West if it complied with its demands.