Yes to Russian oil and gas
Baerbock: Ban on imports does not end the war
03/10/2022 11:28 p.m
Germany is dependent on Russian energy. The federal government has therefore ruled out stopping gas and oil deliveries. Foreign Minister Baerbock now justifies the controversial position: A hasty embargo would play into the hands of Russia’s President Putin.
Despite the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has once again spoken out against stopping energy imports from Russia. “If we had an import ban that ended this war tomorrow, then we would do this,” said the Green politician after talks with Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Pristina.
If you talk about import bans in this area, you also have to say how you want to implement it. If all energy imports were stopped overnight, “that would mean that we would no longer have electricity or heat in a few weeks,” said Baerbock, explaining her position.
“What’s the bigger gift to the Russian President?” she asked rhetorically. “How many days would we be able to maintain that people can no longer drive to work, that we no longer have electricity in kindergartens, that we can no longer really keep hospitals running.” Baerbock added: “That is exactly the destabilization that the Russian President would only wish for.”
“That’s why we have to keep a cool head when it comes to these questions in these difficult times, when it breaks your heart,” Baerbock continued. That means doing everything possible for energy efficiency as quickly as possible and ensuring a massive reduction in fossil imports from Russia.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, said that in view of the high number of war victims among the civilian population, the German government’s no to an import ban was “morally unacceptable”. The federal government rejects an import ban because Germany is too dependent on energy from Russia and economic upheaval could threaten. However, former Federal President Joachim Gauck said on ARD: “We can also freeze for freedom.”