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Robert Habeck
Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments
Robert Habeck fears panic buying in the event that Russian oil and gas supplies are abruptly ended in the course of the Ukraine war.
"What would happen if we said: There is no more oil, we all have to save oil and petrol?" the Green politician asked in an ARD interview on Friday.
There would probably not be less car driving, but there would be a rush to the gas stations – “and everyone is hoarding oil like toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic”.
An immediate exit from Russia's energy supplies would therefore be "dramatic".
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Should Russia unilaterally stop its gas deliveries, there are emergency plans, said the Federal Minister of Economics.
This included government-mandated "safety measures" to save energy.
Even when asked, he did not want to give any details.
Regarding Russia's demand that the West must pay for future energy supplies in rubles, Habeck said this would be a "unilateral breach" of the supply contracts, which are based on payments in dollars or euros.
He doesn't see the West submitting to this "attempted blackmail".
The states of the G7 and the EU have now agreed on this.
"We have to act as one." It would not be rational for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin to stop deliveries himself, he said.
Germany and other countries would never come back as customers.
But one must assume "that Putin is not acting rationally."
»Every kilowatt hour that Germany is not consuming at the moment harms Putin«
Habeck appealed to all consumers and companies to save energy.
"Every kilowatt hour that Germany is not consuming at the moment harms Putin and helps us to be more independent and show more solidarity with Ukraine."
According to Economics Minister Robert Habeck, Germany is making progress on the way to fewer Russian gas, oil and coal imports.
As previously reported by SPIEGEL, the Greens politician spoke of considerable success on Friday in Berlin.
“Germany is in the process of rapidly reducing its energy dependency on Russia and putting its energy supply on a broader footing,” says a ministry paper.
Habeck said that by the end of the summer and autumn, Germany could already completely do without Russian coal.
When it comes to oil, he expects Russian imports to halve by the summer.
In the case of gas, it could be possible to become independent of Russian supplies by the summer of 2024, with the exception of a few shares.
dop/dpa