“Putin has lost the war”
Habeck: Sanctions package this week
4/3/2022, 9:18 p.m
Together with its partners, Germany will put together a new package of sanctions against Russia. In addition, Berlin continues to work on decoupling from the Russian energy market. The focus is now on the infrastructure with Russian owners.
According to Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck, the further EU sanctions that have been announced against Russia will come quickly. “Quick, this week,” said the Green politician on ZDF. The fifth package of sanctions could then include measures “in the whole range of personal sanctions against other people from the Putin regime for technical goods. We will also look at the financial market again.” Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht had previously stated on ARD that the topic of energy supplies must now also be discussed with further consequences. The topic of stopping gas deliveries must also be discussed among EU ministers.
Germany is not waiting to decouple from the energy supply from Russia either, but has “made a good deal of progress in the last four weeks,” Habeck said. “The next steps will be not to expose Russian ownership of the (German energy) infrastructure – Gazprom or Rosneft – to Russian arbitrariness.” Germany is a pity “by doing so for the Russian regime, just as it is being demanded. But we are proceeding in such a way that first the carefully considered steps are taken and then less gas and less oil are used. And that seems appropriate to me.”
Russian President Vladimir “Putin has already practically lost the war,” Habeck continued. He may still win battles. “But the fact that he served Russia and emerged stronger from the war – that’s out of the question.”
Scenarios for emergencies
It was reported last week that the federal government is running through various scenarios in the event that the German subsidiaries of Russian state-owned companies get into serious difficulties. The “Handelsblatt” reported that it was about the possibility of nationalizing or even expropriating the German subsidiaries of the energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft. The government wants to prevent a massive impairment of the energy supply, especially in eastern Germany. Rosneft Germany and Gazprom Germania are exempt from the sanctions. Banks and business partners distanced themselves from companies with Russian owners, it said. The danger of a “technical bankruptcy” cannot therefore be dismissed out of hand.
A day later, Gazprom announced that it was giving up its German subsidiary Gazprom Germania. Gazprom Germania’s business areas are trading, transport and storage of natural gas. It was initially unclear whether the announcement would have consequences for natural gas deliveries from Russia to Germany. Over the weekend, Gazprom said it had sent the agreed amount west through Ukraine. Gazprom Germania has gas storage facilities in Germany and Austria with a total capacity of six billion cubic meters.
Among other things, Rosneft is the majority owner of a refinery in Schwedt in Brandenburg, which supplies the greater Berlin and Brandenburg area as well as western Poland with petrol, diesel, heating oil and kerosene.
The Bundestag recently passed a law according to which the gas storage facilities in Germany must be well filled in winter. This is to prevent prices being driven up by a shortage. We are also striving for something similar at EU level.