**Russia Changes Rules for Foreign Gas Buyers**
Russian President Vladimir Putin has changed the way foreign buyers pay for Russian gas. This is because of recent US sanctions on a Russian bank called Gazprombank.
Before, Russian law said that foreign buyers had to use Gazprombank to pay for gas products. But now, they can also make payments by using something called “offsetting mutual debts”. This means that if one country owes money to another, they can use that debt as payment instead of cash.
The US imposed sanctions on Gazprombank in November. They wanted to stop Russia from using this bank to pay for gas and other things. But Putin’s new law lets foreign buyers use other ways to pay for Russian gas.
Some countries were worried about the new rules. The Hungarian Foreign Minister said that they could cause a problem with energy security.