Brussels is willing to launch legal action against EU countries that allow their energy companies to pay for Russian gas in roubles, violating EU sanctions.

“It’s a relatively complex setting,” European Commission’s Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis told Euronews on Thursday afternoon.

“So on the one hand, it’s member states which are monitoring the implementation of sanctions by concrete companies in their territory. But on the other hand, as European Commission, we are monitoring whether member states are actually enforcing sanctions,”

“If we see that this is not the case, there is also a possibility for the European Commission to start infringement procedures in this regard,” he warned.

The vice-president’s comments come a day after Russia’s state-controlled energy multinational Gazprom decided to cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.