Germany will stop buying Russian coal and oil this year to cut its reliance on the country, the deputy finance minister says

Germany will stop buying Russian coal and oil this year, according to its finance minister.

Germany will stop buying Russian coal on August 1 and Russian oil on December 31 in order to cut its dependence on Russia.

In a few weeks, we will be off Russian coal.

He said that ridding yourself of dependence on the Soviet empire is something that we will achieve in a few months.

Germany received 40% of its coal and 40% of its oil from Russia.

When the European Union leaves Russian gas supplies, there will be a huge gap that will be difficult to fill, he said. Concerns about the supply of natural gas have been the focus of attention recently, after Russia cut flows to parts of Europe.

Some EU leaders think the shutdown could be permanent. Several countries have already signaled they'd be willing to shift to coal as an emergency plan and may even consider rationing, if the Russia closes off the gas tap for good.

European and US energy markets have been thrown into turmoil because of sanctions and boycotts on Russian oil. Western countries were forced to come up with plans to become less dependent on Russia for energy in order to hit Moscow's finances.

The EU's share of energy from Russia has gone from 40% to 20% since the war began.

While the EU struggles with soaring energy prices, inflation and recession risks, Russia has managed to rake in huge profits from its sales of fuel to countries like China and India. Despite sanctions, Russia is on track to make almost $300 billion from oil and gas deals.