Not only natural gas Russia may require rubles to pay for grains, oil, metals, etc.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that he would require European buyers of his natural gas to pay in roubles, Russia is likely to expand its list of exports that require settlement in roubles, including grains, oil, metals and other commodities.

Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the Russian State Duma, proposed the move on Wednesday and said it was a good way to deal with western sanctions, but did not specify how or when the shift would be enforced.

"in areas that are good for our country, it is right to expand the list of export commodities that need to be settled in rubles, including fertilizers, grains, vegetable oils, crude oil, coal, metals, timber and so on," Mr Vorokin said. "

Earlier, Mr Putin ordered last week that natural gas supplies to EU member states and "unfriendly countries" such as the US would be settled in rubles after tough western sanctions. The G7 rejected the request and said it violated the terms of the contract.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the new gas payment plan would take time to implement, although the president ordered officials to propose a mechanism to implement it within the March 31 deadline.

In addition, he noted that Vorokin's proposal to expand the list of sales of goods to be settled in rubles should be implemented, but did not specify any time frame for the possible implementation of the plan.

During the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Russian grain exporters faced growing challenges in supplying major commodities such as wheat, and they were ready to pay for goods in rubles, according to an industry group.

Eduard Zernin, head of the Russian Grain exporters Union (Russian Union of Grain Exporters), said Wednesday that customers are willing to use any currency. He said that although the trade in these commodities was in a humanitarian channel, Russian grain remained severely restricted in terms of logistics, insurance and payments.

The Zernin said the food organisation had asked the central bank of Russia to help minimize losses for exporters and prevent suspensions of food shipments to countries in need.

Robert Habeck, Germany's economy minister, said on Wednesday that Germany had launched a contingency plan to deal with possible disruption of natural gas supplies during Russia's demand for payment of the rouble.

"this is about monitoring the situation," Harbeck said. There are two more steps: the alarm and the emergency phase, but we have not yet reached this step. The situation will have to deteriorate sharply before we can reach these stages. At that time, we need to change the supply line and have to respond accordingly. "

Benchmark Dutch natural gas futures prices rose more than 13 per cent at one point on the news. At present, the Russian natural gas industry company (Gazprom) through the main pipeline supply of natural gas uninterrupted, these pipelines cover about 1/3 of Europe's gas demand.