What does "they're not having it" mean?

Question

Source: Saudi Arabia is killing the Russian economy in its fight to control oil prices

Example:

Kremlin officials suspect that the aim of Saudi policy is to force Russia to the negotiating table, compelling it join Opec in a super-cartel controlling half the world’s production.

The Russians aren't having it, the CEO of Rosneft told the Financial Times earlier this year. President Putin, of course, famously does not like to be forced to do anything, so it's unclear why the Saudis thought this tactic would work.

What exactly does that mean?

Answer 1

The dictionary definitions I found with a quick Google search aren't very helpful. This in an idiomatic expression here meaning the Russians are not fooled or intimidated by the Saudis.

As another example:

"The child said it was the dog that broke the window, but his mother wasn't having any of it"

Answer 2

This is a rather confusing informal expression. I agree with "noah"'s answer, but to add a little more information, there exist similar expressions you may already have heard. Such as

They're not taking it anymore

He isn't buying the story

As with the example you presented, the context of these sentences has nothing to do with actually taking or buying anything but rather an implied notion.

In the first example, one context might be verbal abuse. I was yelling at them, and now they are fed up, no longer want me to yell at them so they won't "take" my abuse any more.

In the second, perhaps I was lying to him, but he doesn't believe my story, so idiomatically we say he doesn't "buy" the story.

In summation, these types of expressions don't make a lot of sense. You just have to get used to them in their implied context.