Russian President Vladimir Putin allowed natural-gas buyers from “unfriendly” countries to pay debts for fuel in foreign currency, partly lifting a requirement for ruble-only payments. Repayment of debt doesn’t provide grounds for a resumption of Russian gas supplies to buyers that don’t comply with other requirements of a presidential decree issued earlier this year, according to amendments published late Friday. Putin shocked the European gas market at the end of March by signing a decree that ordered a full switch to ruble payments for Russian pipeline gas amid the Kremlin’s standoff with the western nations over ... (full story)