Gazprom (Gazprom) said on the 1st that from January to May this year, the total amount of natural gas exported by this enterprise to regions outside the former Soviet Union decreased by 27.6% compared with the same period last year. The energy giant said in a statement on the same day that Russia exported 61billion cubic meters of natural gas to the above regions in the first five months of this year. According to Agence France Presse, Russia's natural gas exports decreased mainly because Russia stopped supplying gas to some European countries that did not accept the ruble settlement order. Since Russia launched a special military operation against Ukraine on February 24, the European Union has followed the United States in imposing several rounds of sanctions against Russia. On March 31, Russian President vladimirputin signed a presidential decree on natural gas trade settlement in rubles with "unfriendly" countries and regions, requiring "unfriendly" countries and regions to open ruble accounts in Russian banks to pay for the purchase of natural gas, otherwise the supply will be interrupted. At this stage, many European countries have been "cut off" by Russia for refusing to comply with the "ruble settlement order". These countries are Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark. According to the data previously released by the European Commission, before the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the EU relied on Russia for about 40% of its natural gas supply, which has now dropped to about 26%. The EU hopes that this proportion will drop to 13% by the end of this year. (Xinhua News Agency)