Germany will not boycott Russian gas or oil imports

Germany remains opposed to any boycott of Russian energy exports, especially natural gas, in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to two new interviews.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck admitted that the country’s heavy dependence on Russian exports made it untenable to follow the U.S. in banning imports of coal, oil and natural gas from Russia.

A sudden boycott would cause “deep economic and social damage. We’re talking about… supply shortages next winter, about an economic slump and high inflation, about hundreds of thousands who would lose their jobs, about people who could barely afford to drive to work, to heat their homes or to pay for electricity,” Habeck told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper in an interview published Monday, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Habeck, a member of the Green Party, said that Berlin was working hard to make the Germany economy independent of Russian coal and oil over the next couple years, but said that gas imports would still be necessary in the near term.

Few Western countries are as dependent on Russian energy as Germany, with 55% of natural gas, 50% of coal and 35% of oil used there coming from Russia. Critics have pointed this out as a strategic weakness that stems from its decision to shutter its nuclear plants in the pursuit of “green energy.”

The hundreds of millions of euros spent on these imports daily helps finance the Russian war in Ukraine. Its reliance on Russian energy was cited as why Germany initially opposed cutting Russian banks off the SWIFT payment system.

President Joe Biden announced that his administration would ban all Russian energy imports last week after bipartisan pressure from Congress.