I wonder why Russia "unilaterally" decided to demand payment in rubles after the western politicians were seriously floating ideas about immediately freezing fu

I wonder why Russia "unilaterally" decided to demand payment in rubles after the western politicians were seriously floating ideas about immediately freezing funds received by Gazprom as a payment for Russian natural resources. /s And payment in rubles has nothing to do with supporting its exchange rate. It does not matter who does the conversion. It could be Gazprom or a European company, the result for the exchange rate is the same. It's all about removing dependency on the western financial system and bolstering a bit the domestic one.