“There is currently no other way of securing Europe’s supply of energy for heat generation, for mobility, for power supply and for industry,” said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz in March. Photo: Abdulhamid Hoşbaş/ Anadolu Agency.
The official representative of the federal government, Stefen Hebestreit, denied support for the introduction of a blockade of Russian energy supplies on Monday. According to official sources, this country imports 55% of its gas and 42% of its oil and coal from Russia.
Hebestreit said an immediate hiatus would cause serious problems for the country. The boycott would entail significant economic consequences for Germany and, in particular, significant job losses, the official said.
According to Hebestreit, the federal government sees reaching an immediate ceasefire as the most important goal in efforts to resolve the situation in Ukraine. “The top priority now is to get a ceasefire to stop the dying,” he said.
Several Western countries have activated sanctions against Moscow after it recognized the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and launched a special military operation in Ukraine to meet their pleas for help in the face of Kyiv’s aggression.
Economics and Energy Minister Robert Habeck took the view on March 14 with regard to a possible energy boycott that “if we flip a switch immediately, there will be delivery bottlenecks up to and including delivery stops in Germany”.
The Green politician predicted “mass unemployment, poverty, people who can’t heat their homes, people who are running out of gas” if his country stops using Russian oil and gas.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has made a 180-degree turn in his foreign policy since the start of the war in Ukraine, agreeing to the delivery of lethal weapons to Ukraine, supporting Russia’s exclusion from the Swift payment system, and freezing the Nordstrom 2 gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, already completed but not yet operational.
However, he was moderate on the issue of Russia’s energy supply. “Currently there is no other way to ensure Europe’s supply of energy for heat generation, for mobility, for electricity supply and for industry,” he said at the beginning of March.
(With information from PL, DW, RT and The Guardian)