A Russian-owned refinery in Schwedt, eastern Germany, is complicating efforts to purge Russian energy from the power grid. AP
A Russian-owned refinery in Schwedt, eastern Germany, is complicating efforts to purge Russian energy from the power grid. AP
A Russian-owned refinery in Schwedt, eastern Germany, is complicating efforts to purge Russian energy from the power grid. AP
A Russian-owned refinery in Schwedt, eastern Germany, is complicating efforts to purge Russian energy from the power grid. AP

Germany 'will not stand in way' of Russian oil embargo


Tim Stickings
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Germany has pushed the European Union a step closer to an embargo on Russian oil by saying it would no longer block such a measure despite reservations over whether it would succeed in weakening the Kremlin.

Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck said Germany's moves to replace Russian oil since the invasion of Ukraine meant it could now withstand an embargo without the economic disaster it had feared when it initially opposed such a move.

Germany had been one of the main sceptics of an immediate oil embargo championed by countries such as Poland, who say Europe is effectively financing Russia's onslaught on Ukraine by paying for its fossil fuel shipments.

Any import ban would require unanimity from the EU's 27 members. Hungary has also spoken out against an embargo but has left the door open to allowing an oil ban to pass if there are sufficient alternatives to Russian imports.

Mr Habeck, who is responsible for energy policy, would normally represent Germany at a special EU energy summit on Monday, but a spokeswoman said his appointments had been cancelled after he tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday.

He told ZDF television late on Thursday that Germany “is not standing in the way of an embargo” and could live with the likely economic fallout if it is passed.

But he said he would have questions about “how cleverly it is imposed”, to prevent prices spiking so much that Russia actually collects more money for less oil.

He sketched out a scenario in which such an embargo backfires by throwing poorer nations into crisis because of high prices, pushing them into the arms of Russian President Vladimir Putin if he offers cheap fuel in exchange for political support.

“There are other possibilities” apart from an import ban, said Mr Habeck, without elaborating. Oil prices rose on his comments.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said he would have questions about any proposed oil embargo. EPA
German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said he would have questions about any proposed oil embargo. EPA

Russia's move this week to cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria highlighted the hold that the Kremlin has over the power grids of its neighbours and prompted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to say that the “era of Russian fossil fuels in Europe will come to an end".

Gas supplier Gazprom said it had cut off the two countries because they refused to pay in roubles, a demand rejected by Ukraine's allies as a breach of contract but which has put other countries on alert for potential interruptions.

There was confusion over whether Russia's request for money to be converted into roubles at a Gazprombank account constituted a violation of EU sanctions, a point expected to be discussed at Monday's energy meeting.

EU diplomats agreed to a ban on Russian coal in a fifth round of sanctions signed off this month. But a sixth package, potentially including oil, has yet to be formally proposed after three weeks of discussions.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said last week that the country would examine whether any EU proposals offered an alternative to Russian oil and that there were more options to replace it than there were for gas.

Ukraine wants its allies to complete the set by banning Russian gas as well, but Germany says it will take until 2024 to be independent of it, Austria says it will need until 2027 and Hungary has described debate on the issue as pointless.

Germany's belief that it can live without Russian oil comes after a two-month scramble for alternatives which Mr Habeck said had reduced its dependence on Moscow from 35 per cent to 12 per cent.

The main remaining obstacle is a refinery in eastern Germany owned by Russian energy company Rosneft, which Mr Habeck said had no interest in co-operating on an oil embargo.

Replacing Russian gas will take longer because Germany currently has no import terminals to handle liquefied gas that is shipped from further afield. But Olaf Lies, a regional environment minister, said on Thursday that construction work on an LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven would begin next week.

In the meantime, Germany's grid regulator said in a daily update that gas stocks were in a relatively healthy position and that Russian gas was continuing to flow through the Nord Stream 1 and Megal pipelines.

Gas stores were about 33.6 per cent full, the agency said, better than at this time last year. The European Commission has proposed mandatory minimum storage levels to prevent the bloc running out of gas.

MATCH INFO

Day 1 at Mount Maunganui

England 241-4

Denly 74, Stokes 67 not out, De Grandhomme 2-28

New Zealand 

Yet to bat

MATCH INFO

Day 2 at Mount Maunganui

England 353

Stokes 91, Denly 74, Southee 4-88

New Zealand 144-4

Williamson 51, S Curran 2-28

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
BRIEF SCORES:

Toss: Nepal, chose to field

UAE 153-6: Shaiman (59), Usman (30); Regmi 2-23

Nepal 132-7: Jora 53 not out; Zahoor 2-17

Result: UAE won by 21 runs

Series: UAE lead 1-0

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Updated: April 29, 2022, 11:48 AM`