In the evening of 29 March, it was reported that the physical gas flows through the Yamal-Europe pipeline at Germany's Mallnow point had fallen to zero.[7] The following day, Germany′s Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck triggered the "early warning" level for gas supplies, the first step of a national gas emergency plan that involved setting up a crisis team of representatives from the federal and state governments, regulators and private industry and that could, eventually, lead to gas rationing; he urged Germans to voluntarily cut their energy consumption as a way of ending the country's dependence on Russia.[8][9] A similar step was undertaken by the Austrian government.[10] Meanwhile, Gazprom said it continued to supply gas to Europe via Ukraine and Russia′s gas had also begun flowing westward through the pipeline via Poland.[9] Russia′s TASS reported that President Putin had a phone call with Germany′s Chancellor Olaf Scholz to "inform him on the decision to switch to payments in rubles for gas".[11] According to Olaf Scholz's office, President Vladimir Putin told the German Chancellor that European companies could continue paying in euros or dollars.[12]