Germany Continues to Arm Ukraine, While Continuing to Buy Russian Oil and Gas; Halting Russian Imports Would Devastate the German Economy

Germany’s Economic and Energy Minister, Robert Habeck, has warned that the xenophobic rhetoric towards Russians, must stop if Germany wants to remain a prosperous country, after Germany announced that it is planning to boycott Russian oil and gas. 

Habeck warned that doing so is only going to push Germany into unemployment and poverty. 

“If we flip a switch immediately, there will be supply shortages, even supply stops in Germany,” Habeck told public broadcaster ARD in a recent interview. 

Germany has been trying to move into more diverse energy supplies, but being the second largest economy in Europe, if they change too quickly, it will end in ruin. 

Habeck is a member of Germany’s Green Party, and said that if imports of Russian oil and gas stops, there will be “mass unemployment, poverty, people who can’t heat their homes, people who run out of petrol.”

Russia has already halted much needed exports of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for the next month, and as reported by the U.K. Guardian Germany relies heavily on Russian imports of gas and oil – around 54 percent of its natural gas, 52 percent of its coal and 34 percent of mineral oil. 

Despite this huge reliance, authorities in Germany are determined to cut ties with Russia and plan to give up Russian coal and phase out Russian oil – undoubtedly this will cause one of the richest countries in the world to completely tank. 

“With coal, oil and even gas, we are step by step in the process of making ourselves independent,” Habeck said. “But we can’t do it in an instant. That’s bitter, and it’s not a nice thing morally to confess to, but we can’t do it yet.” 

American imports of Russian oil are around 8 percent of its crude oil purchases, but with the ban that has been put on Russian imports by the Biden administration, the price at the pump is already climbing without any indication of stopping. 

Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, is sending weapons to Ukraine to fight against Russia and supports Russia being cut off from the Swift payment system, but doesn’t stop the importing of Russian oil because Germany would immediately collapse if that happened. 

“Currently there is no other way to secure Europe’s supply with energy to generate heat, for mobility, for power supply and for industry,” Scholz stated. 

The halt of Russia gas and oil has varying estimates of exactly how it would affect the German economy – some state the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) might only fall by 0.1 percent, while otherwise put the impact at nearly 5.2 percent. 

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline was frozen by German authorities, despite it not being operational yet, and Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Germany should cut off Nord Stream 1 pipeline too. 

Of course, this would put the country back into the dark ages and undoubtedly many will die when winter rolls back around as Germany’s winters can often be harsh. 

The left-wing side of the German leadership lived in a fantasy world, thinking they would be able to bridge the gap in Russian oil and gas imports with wind turbines – which they are prepared to cut down a 1000 year old forest to build – to save the planet, naturally. 

The Guardian warned that, “simplifying the process whereby new wind and solar farms are to be authorized was one of the promises of the ‘traffic light’ government’s coalition deal, but construction alone will take time.” 

In other words, the infrastructure simply doesn’t exist to support millions of people with “green” energy. Besides the fact that wind turbines can freeze if it’s too cold and solar doesn’t work if there’s no sun.