Regarding the Russian attack on Ukraine, Baerbock said: “Anything we could do to stop this madness, we would do it. But we also have to make sure that we don’t choose instruments that Putin ends up laughing at because they hit us much harder.”
50 percent of hard coal imports came from Russia, said Baerbock: “If we don’t have this coal, the coal-fired power plants in Germany will not be able to continue.” The government is looking for alternatives under high pressure, but cannot now heal the mistakes of the past. “And of course we are responsible for ensuring that we continue to have a stable supply of electricity and heat in Germany.”
If Germany and other European countries now had problems there, then this would be something that Putin also wanted, a “destabilization in our country,” Baerbock made clear. “If the electricity didn’t work properly for us for a few days, then we would have a real problem.” That doesn’t mean that Germany isn’t taking on costs, energy prices are going up.