London, Monday, 14 March 2022
Germany's reliance on Russian oil and gas will be totally phased out, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday.
Baerbock lambasted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Berlin energy conference, saying his conflict on Ukraine has transformed geopolitics and Germany's security calculations.
"This created a great deal of hardship for millions of people, but it also demonstrated to us that we need to become completely self-sufficient in terms of Russian fuel imports," she said.
Previous German governments, according to Baerbock, failed to take substantial steps to lessen the country's dependency on Russian gas, oil, and coal imports.
She claimed that the unlawful annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 prompted conversations in Europe about diversifying energy imports, but that no meaningful steps were taken.
"And now we're seeing the horrible results of that," she added.
Germany gets 55 percent of its natural gas from Russia, 35 percent of its crude oil from Russia, and 45 percent of its coal from Russia.
Last week, the German government unveiled an ambitious proposal to lessen Germany's long-standing energy reliance on Russia.
(Research and edit by: The Decision Maker – International Relations editors)
(Picture by: Wikipedia)