Because of the sanctions, Russia has no access to foreign exchange reserves, Chancellor Scholz argued in “Anne Will”. He is confident that Germany can soon become independent of Russian energy.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected criticism that Germany is helping to finance Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine with its energy imports from Russia.
“Russia currently cannot do anything with the money it has in its accounts because of our sanctions,” said the SPD politician on the ARD program “Anne Will”. It’s about a few hundred billion in foreign exchange reserves. “It is therefore very unlikely that this connection even exists.”
It will be “quite quick” to eliminate Germany’s dependence on Russian energy imports. With coal, if everything goes well, this could happen quickly this year, Scholz announced. This can also happen very quickly with oil. And for gas, plans that have been in the drawer for a long time have “now been activated”. The technical infrastructure is being created at great speed in order to be able to import gas from other suppliers.
Scholz against embargo
Scholz again rejected an immediate import boycott. He warned: “It’s about an incredible number of jobs.” Conversely, should Russia end its exports, Germany would be prepared. “But if these imports stopped from one day to the next, it would mean that entire branches of industry would have to stop their activities.”
Scholz also rejected the Ukrainian proposal for a one-month embargo. Responsible politics must have the courage to speak the truth. “And the truth is that if we did that, we would trigger a major economic crisis.” This would not be so easy to do in Europe either. For example, Italy is highly dependent on Russian imports. Some Eastern European countries have networks that are linked to the Russian network from earlier times, but not to the Western networks.
No tax increases to finance the crisis
Scholz also rejected tax increases to finance the consequences of the war and at the same time stuck to the debt brake. He referred to the agreements of the traffic light parties in their coalition agreement. «We have found an understanding in the coalition between the three parties on the issues of both the debt brake and the issue of tax increases. And all three will stick to them in the end.”
When asked whether the debt brake will be observed again in the coming year, the SPD politician said: “It’s in the Basic Law.” Scholz referred to earlier statements about the Corona crisis that Germany was able to quickly mobilize a lot of money to preserve the economy and jobs because it had done well before and had reduced public debt. “One thing is clear: this is for the crisis,” he said, referring to the current high level of borrowing. “But there is also a time without a crisis.”
Anti-missile shield based on the Israeli model?
Scholz is considering setting up a missile defense shield for the whole of Germany based on the Israeli model. “That’s definitely one of the things we advise for a good reason,” said Scholz when asked whether an “Iron Dome” (iron dome) should be stretched across the country like in Israel.
In justification, he said with a view to Russia: “We all have to prepare for the fact that we have a neighbor who is currently willing to use violence to assert his interests. That’s why we have to make ourselves so strong together that this doesn’t happen.”
Scholz did not want to comment on the details yet. “I have decided not to divulge the details of a plan that has not yet been finalized here.”
Source: Stern
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