Minister at “RTL Direct”
Habeck unsure about Russian gas delivery
03/30/2022, 10:18 p.m
Is Russia turning off the gas tap? Federal Minister of Economics Habeck is uncertain in view of numerous statements from Moscow about the payment of the deliveries. He calls on citizens and companies to save energy. He is also looking forward to the coming winter with concern.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck is skeptical as to whether Russia will actually continue to accept payments for gas deliveries in euros. One has to wait and see how the government of President Vladimir Putin will concrete its threat in a law tomorrow, said the Green politician on the “RTL Direkt” program. Russia had announced that by law from April 1 it would only want to accept payments in the national currency ruble. Customers in the west had rejected this with reference to existing contracts.
With a view to the payment conversion date, Habeck said: Only then will we know exactly “what that means, whether the statements from yesterday and those from today contradict each other or whether it is all just a communicative error. We have to be vigilant. You know that today we have declared an early warning level to also formalize this vigilance.”
Habeck pointed out that there would not be an immediate emergency should Russia turn off the gas tap. Gas is in storage and can be imported from neighboring countries via LNG terminals. The big task is to have the storage tanks full for next winter: “And if no Russian gas were to come, it would be very difficult to do so with the current consumption and deliveries.” By reducing gas consumption, everyone can make a contribution. A room temperature that is one degree lower saves six percent of energy.
When asked whether he could promise citizens that the heaters would not go out in the event of a gas stop, Habeck said: “I can tell you that the legal situation provides that heating the house is the last thing to fear government intervention Has.” On the other hand, with a land war in Europe we are in a situation that we would never have had in 70 years. “We are talking about scenarios that hopefully and probably will never happen, but if they did, we as a country and as a society have never been there.”