Latvia’s Parliament on Thursday approved a series of amendments to the country’s energy law in order to ban gas imports from Russia in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Thus, the Lower House of Parliament has approved the amendments after the third and final reading of the bill, which envisages diversifying natural gas supply routes and securing strategic natural gas reserves.”

The law also provides for a ban on gas supplies from Russia in the framework of the sanctions imposed by the European Union against Moscow, as the Parliament has indicated in a statement.

Thus, the ban on Russian gas imports could come into force from January 2023, according to information from the Delfi news portal. Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics has indicated on previous occasions that the government’s intention is to “live without Russian gas”.

In early April, Latvian company Latvijas Gaze said it was considering the possibility of paying for Russian gas in rubles. The company’s president and CEO, Aigars Kalvitis, claimed then that gas reserves in storage were “sufficient to meet its contractual obligations to households and other customers.”

Several European countries have expressed their intention to achieve independence from Russian gas supplies after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 3 that countries considered by Moscow to be “hostile”, including the 27 members of the European Union, would have to pay in rubles for gas from April 1.