{"id":45079,"date":"2022-03-09T12:33:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T11:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/sonntag-france-2022-ukraine-war-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-05-06T11:00:28","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T09:00:28","slug":"ralf-fuecks-what-is-europes-freedom-worth-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/en\/ralf-fuecks-what-is-europes-freedom-worth-to-us\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Europe\u2019s freedom worth to us?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Foto: Ligovsky \/\u200b Shutter\u00adstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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We must stop funding Putin\u2019s war with our energy imports<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

The war in Ukraine is on a knife edge. If Putin has specu\u00adlated that Ukraine will fall into his lap like a ripe fruit, he has thoroughly miscal\u00adcu\u00adlated. Not only Kiyv, but also the towns in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine are fighting back with desperate courage. Putin is now resorting to the methods he has already demon\u00adstrated in Chechnya and Syria: Bombing residential neigh\u00adbor\u00adhoods, cutting off besieged towns from food and medical aid, attacking energy supplies. We should have known what he was capable of \u2014 if we had wanted to know.<\/p>\n

A human\u00adi\u00adtarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes. No one knows how long the Ukrainians can hold out. We have hesitated too long to provide them with the weapons needed to keep Russian superi\u00adority at bay. We have taken too long to put in place economic sanctions that will hit hard. However, their full impact will be delayed, especially since the sanctions have a gaping hole: the Russian energy sector is largely exempt.<\/p>\n

The Russian banks through which the oil and gas trade is conducted, are not subject to any restric\u00adtions on their inter\u00adna\u00adtional business. Since Putin unleashed the war, Rosneft and Gazprom have been exporting at full throttle. Due to record oil and gas prices, their revenues have skyrocketed. In other words, the European Union is under\u00admining its own sanctions by increasing imports of Russian hydro\u00adcarbons. We are flushing hundreds of millions of euros a day into the Kremlin\u2019s war chest. What schiz\u00ado\u00adphrenia, supplying Ukraine with weapons with one hand and financing the Russian war machine with the other.<\/p>\n

We are now reaping the poisonous fruits of an energy policy that has maneu\u00advered us over a long stretch into ever deeper depen\u00addence on energy imports from Russia. It was pushed by a well-lubri\u00adcated Russia lobby, headed by a lowlife ex-chancellor. The \u201cstrategic energy partnership\u201d with Russia pursued by both the SPD and the CDU\/\u200bCSU delib\u00ader\u00adately or negli\u00adgently ignored the security policy impli\u00adca\u00adtions of this strategy. It ignored the warnings of our partners in Central and Eastern Europe just as callously as it ignored the security interests of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Now we are stuck in a trap of our own making. 55 percent of Germany\u2019s natural gas consumption and more than 40 percent of our oil imports come from Russia. We have financed Russian armament and Putin\u2019s propa\u00adganda apparatus for years. Russia is a fossil empire. Revenues from oil, gas, and coal exports make up the between 30 and 40 percent of the state budget. They are the source of shameless enrichment for the power elites, who use petro-euros to finance their palaces and luxury yachts.<\/p>\n

To stop Putin, we must act now and immediately<\/h2>\n

The exit from this dirty alliance is not witch\u00adcraft. It requires, above all, the massive expansion of renewable energies, the estab\u00adlishment of an inter\u00adna\u00adtional alliance for green hydrogen, the electri\u00adfi\u00adcation of transport, the increased use of heat pumps and thermal solar energy for heating homes and offices, and a leap in energy efficiency. The problem is: This trans\u00adfor\u00admation of our economy takes years. But to stop Putin, we must immedi\u00adately cut off his financial resources for his war machine. Ukraine cannot wait until we painlessly replace Russian oil and gas with alter\u00adnative energy sources.<\/p>\n

If we have good reasons to avoid getting into a direct military confrontation with Russia, we are left with two means of supporting Ukraine\u2019s defensive struggle. We must supply it with the most effective weapons systems and cut off Putin\u2019s money supply. Every day we hesitate and dither will be paid for in the blood and tears of Ukrainians.<\/p>\n

Oil export revenues are the largest item in Russia\u2019s trade balance. The most consistent response, therefore, seems to be an import freeze on Russian oil. The lost supplies would have to be replaced by increased imports from OPEC countries. However, the Kremlin could probably get over such a step. If Arab oil flows increas\u00adingly to Europe, Russian oil can fill the resulting gaps, provided the country is not completely isolated from inter\u00adna\u00adtional payments.<\/p>\n

The situation is different with gas: Russia would not be able to compensate for a loss of the European market in the short term. Therefore, this is the regime\u2019s financial Achilles heel. However, the costs of a gas embargo are also higher for the EU. Russia dominates the global gas market. Current demand exceeds supply, and natural gas imports can only be diver\u00adsified to a limited extent in the short term. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is also scarce and expensive.<\/p>\n

Challenging, but manageable<\/h2>\n

Russian natural gas covers a good 40 percent of the EU\u2019s current demand. If we were to pull out completely, we would be left with a gap of round\u00adabout 15\u201320 percent in the coming winter season after exhausting all the alter\u00adna\u00adtives available in the short term. In Germany, this gap may be even larger due to its particular depen\u00addency on Russian gas. It would mainly hit industry, especially basic chemicals. The power sector is the least of the problems. If necessary, gas-fired power plants can be temporarily replaced by coal and nuclear. The biggest gas guzzlers are homes and office buildings. Here, a reduction in temper\u00ada\u00adtures of just 2 degrees would save consid\u00aderable amounts. No one would have to get cold feet because of this. Saving energy helps us out of a tight spot.<\/p>\n

It is also true that a gas and oil boycott against Russia would drive up energy prices even further. Rising energy costs are already a poverty risk for low-income earners and a compet\u00aditive disad\u00advantage for energy-intensive companies. The state would have to provide social compen\u00adsation and ease the burden on businesses to give them time to switch to alter\u00adnative energy sources and more efficient processes.<\/p>\n

Measured against the Ukrainian tragedy and Putin\u2019s threat to the European peace order, however, these problems appear in a different light. Tackling them would be less grueling than the show of force that Covid 19 has called for. This applies to the federal budget as well as to civil society. In the end, the price we would have to pay to deprive Putin of funding for his war policy here and now would be much less than the cost of a future confrontation with a neo-imperial Russia.<\/p>\n

If German and European policy\u00admakers still balk at a complete cutoff of gas imports from Russia, we should at least join with the U.S. in imposing an oil boycott. In addition, the EU could decide to shut down Nord Stream 1. This would affect about one-third of Russian gas imports to the EU and could be managed without much friction. Never\u00adtheless, it would be a strong signal to the Kremlin that the Europeans mean business. Gazprom would then have to send its remaining exports to the EU through the conti\u00adnental pipeline network, much of it through Ukraine. That would be the best reinsurance against destruction of Ukraine\u2019s gas infra\u00adstructure by the Russian military.<\/p>\n

Either way, we must act quickly now to prevent more suffering and destruction. Putin is specu\u00adlating that European democ\u00adracies are not willing to pay a tangible price for defending law and freedom. He must not get away with this. The price could otherwise become much higher.<\/p>\n

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This text was first published in German at spiegel.de<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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