diff --git a/python-dbus-python.changes b/python-dbus-python.changes
index 49dd29f..e6adbed 100644
--- a/python-dbus-python.changes
+++ b/python-dbus-python.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thu Dec  7 11:17:04 UTC 2017 - dimstar@opensuse.org
+
+- Escape the usage of %{VERSION} when calling out to rpm.
+  RPM 4.14 has %{VERSION} defined as 'the main packages version'.
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tue Nov 14 16:26:45 UTC 2017 - jmatejek@suse.com
 
diff --git a/python-dbus-python.spec b/python-dbus-python.spec
index f2ae223..161cdd2 100644
--- a/python-dbus-python.spec
+++ b/python-dbus-python.spec
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ Obsoletes:      dbus-1-python2 < %{version}
 Provides:       dbus-1-python3 = %{version}
 Obsoletes:      dbus-1-python3 < %{version}
 %endif
-Requires:       dbus-1 >= %( echo `rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' dbus-1`)
+Requires:       dbus-1 >= %( echo `rpm -q --queryformat '%%{VERSION}' dbus-1`)
 BuildRoot:      %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-build
 
 %python_subpackages
@@ -62,8 +62,8 @@ Group:          Development/Libraries/Python
 Requires:       %{name} = %{version}
 Requires:       %{name}-common-devel = %{version}
 Requires:       python-devel
-Requires:       dbus-1 >= %( echo `rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' dbus-1`)
-Requires:       dbus-1-devel >= %( echo `rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' dbus-1-devel`)
+Requires:       dbus-1 >= %( echo `rpm -q --queryformat '%%{VERSION}' dbus-1`)
+Requires:       dbus-1-devel >= %( echo `rpm -q --queryformat '%%{VERSION}' dbus-1-devel`)
 %ifpython2
 Provides:       dbus-1-python-devel = %{version}
 Provides:       dbus-1-python2-devel = %{version}