Germany to stop Russian oil imports by end of this year

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Germany will stop buying oil from Russia by the end of the year.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that oil will be halved by the summer and gas will follow by the end of the year.

Germany currently buys 25% of its oil and 40% of its gas from Russia and has warned that it could face a recession if supplies suddenly stopped.

The US has banned Russian oil imports, while the UK will phase them out by the end of the year.

Europe will be independent from Russian energy before the year 2030.

Ms Baerbock said it would phase out oil and gas imports.

The complete exit of the European Union is our common strength, she said.

Germany halted the opening of the Russian gas line in response to the war.

The German economic institute warned this week that a sudden halt to Russian imports would cause a recession in Europe.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, criticized Germany for falling short of the restrictions on Russian energy imports announced by the US and the UK.

Christian Lindner, the German finance minister, told the British Broadcasting Corporation that his country was working quickly to put an embargo on Russian energy.

He said that a Russian energy embargo could cause the physical shutdown of German manufacturers.

Mr Lindner said that the German aim was to enforce sanctions which hurt Putin more than us as Europeans and our single market.

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, according to Mr Lindner.

Mr Lindner said that Russia was responsible for a lot of the issues hitting the world economy.

Russia is responsible for all the economic and political risks that arise from the war.

He said that previous German governments had underestimated the country's dependence on Russian energy.

It was a strategic miscalculation from German governments over the last two decades, and now we have to work on energy diversity.

He insisted that Putin was wrong to think that Germany will continue to be dependent on it for energy.