Germany is ruling out moving from the Russian oil imports as fast as possible. But according to the German government authority, it will take time. However, they would prefer to reduce the energy reliability from Russia immediately. Germany finance minister Christian Lindner said, “We have to be patient,” Earlier Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had mentioned that Germany would end oil imports by the end of the year.
Mr. Lindner was also concerned about the macroeconomic effects Ukraine war. He said, “I don’t fear [the] economic costs [of buying less Russian energy]. I fear the physical scenario, if you have to stop the supply, for a complete production line, this causes more than economic costs,” Mr. Lindner also said, “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was the root cause of growing geopolitical and economic risks including inflation, food shortages and a debt crisis for low-income countries.”
Germany decided to take a step when Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Germany to fail to curb Russian energy imports. At that time, Ukraine’s president explained energy payments as “blood money”.
Russia sells around $1bn worth of oil and gas per day. Russian authority is using this as an important political weapon to influence international support. Refusing the energy from Russia can be a significant pressure on President Vladimir Putin to end the war. Most of the EU countries including Germany are heavily dependent on Russian energy. Currently, Germany is purchasing 25% of its oil and 40% of its gas from Russia.
However, many countries like the US have already banned Russian oil imports. Now the UK government also planning to phase them out by the end of the year.