The EU Commission also wants to reduce imports of Russian natural gas by two thirds within a year, an ambitious goal. President Ursula von der Leyen: “We simply cannot rely on a supplier who threatens us.”
Who would want that, but Germany, with its higher Putin dependency rates for gas and oil, is having a much harder time dealing with the overdue embargo. Unlike the economists at the Leopoldina Academy, Economics Minister Robert Habeck fears “a serious economic crisis” in this case.
Refineries or chemical companies would have big problems. The price of a barrel of oil is now more than 130 US dollars – after 90 dollars a month ago. And anyone who is surprised at more than two euros per liter for E10 petrol and diesel when filling up in Germany may soon be complaining of more than three euros.
Conclusion: Sometimes the “price of freedom” is just a prohibitive price.
Even die-hard globalizers like Cola-Cola, McDonald’s and Starbucks, who bring their high-calorie standard goods to the furthest corners of the globe, no longer like Russia. They are going out of business until further notice. Lars Brzoska, CEO of the intralogistics company Jungheinrich, complains in the Handelsblatt that the German sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime are too lax.
His industry is “virtually unaffected” by the measures. And there are many other companies and industries that are allowed to continue with almost no restrictions. He also elected the government, but they struggled, first with arms deliveries, then with sanctions. According to the manager, he was ashamed of “the lack of courage, the lack of consistency, the lack of speed”.
The Greek philosopher Epicurus might help here: “One principle will give you courage, namely that no evil lasts forever.”
Many CEOs translate the Jungheinrich boss’s mantra: “This isn’t a crisis, this is war” as: “This is business.” business of business is business.”
The most valuable Dax group, Linde, is holding on to two major orders from the Putin state monopoly Gazprom worth six billion dollars. They have “excellent relationships,” enthused CEO Sanjiv Lamba at the end of 2021, when he was still Chief Operating Officer. Work orders include jobs in the Power of Siberia pipeline project.
Incidentally, among the last German retailers to maintain sales in Russia are Metro and the supermarket chain Globus from Saarland. Globus owner Thomas Bruch always wanted to make “a contribution to German-Russian friendship”. In war, friendship quickly turns into complicity.
Tania and Anton Chontoroh in their apartment in Kyiv
If you want to know what’s going on in Ukraine, how people are suffering under Putin’s war terror, you have to read the diary of IT designer Tatiana Chontoroh in our current issue.
My colleague Simone Wermelskirchen is in close contact with her and translated the notes of the 28-year-old Ukrainian. We read about her little son, who was born with two heart defects, about baby food that is running out, about solidarity and air raid alarms in Kyiv, about empty pharmacies, children playing – and finally about the boy’s death: “My life in Kyiv: War and death are near”.
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy has meanwhile inspired the House of Commons in London via video link with an emotional speech, mixed the quotes from Churchill and Shakespeare: “We will keep fighting for our country, whatever the cost. We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores and in the streets.”
After 13 days it’s no longer a matter of “to be or not to be”, now the answer is: “to be”. Ukraine will neither give up nor lose, said Selenski, who appeared in a dark T-shirt, as he did last time. Prime Minister Boris Johnson then praised a leader who stands firmly for freedom and democracy – he had “moved the hearts of everyone in this House”.
The war not only destroyed houses and hospitals in Kyiv, Kharkiv or Mariupol, but also market after market. The prices are “out of order”. The London Metal Exchange LME suspended trading in nickel after the price had risen by 250 percent within two days to $101,365 per ton.
It is feared that the important nickel exporter Russia will soon no longer be able to deliver as usual. In addition, the Chinese entrepreneur Xiang Guangda has obviously gambled, who had bet on falling prices and had to inject liquidity. Some are already replacing the “o” in his nickname “Big Shot” with a different vowel.
The price of wheat is also at a historic high: 420 euros per ton. Russia and Ukraine typically provide a third of the world’s grain trade, but the Black Sea ports have become inoperable because of the war. Main buyers such as Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Somalia are threatened with famine and unrest. One commodities expert says that Putin doesn’t have to use nuclear weapons at all: “An agrarian war is much more effective in destabilizing the West and the whole world.”
And then there is the logistics entrepreneur, luxury hotelier and disappointed HSV fan Klaus-Michael Kühne, 84, who follows in the footsteps of the deceased Munich thoroughbred entrepreneur Heinz-Hermann Thiele.
Like the owner of Knorr-Bremse, billionaire Kühne is also becoming a larger shareholder in Lufthansa. He took over 4.04 percent of the shares in Europe’s largest airline, probably in anticipation of good cooperation between his logistics company Kühne + Nagel and Lufthansa Cargo, one of the leading freight companies.
In any case, that is a solid economic justification compared to what Thiele once said about his motives: “Lufthansa simply has the best sleeping seats of all airlines.”
Have a nice take off day.
It greets you cordially
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
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