Poor people. Archival photoMOSCOW, 23 Apr. Germany is facing «the worst economic crisis since the Second World War,» the British edition of the Financial Times warns. An economic catastrophe will occur if official Berlin imposes an embargo on Russian energy, the article says. German GDP, the newspaper notes, in 2022-2023 may be reduced by 6.5%, which, in turn, will destroy the economy of the country, which is already the «sick man» of Europe. It became known earlier that Germany's spending on Russian oil threatens to grow from 11.4 billion euros to 14.3 billion euros . The gas import bill could double from 8.8 billion euros last year to 17.6 billion euros in 2022. In addition, according to the study, about 2 billion euros will have to pay for Russian coal. Germany and other Western countries have faced a sharp increase in fuel prices after they imposed sweeping sanctions in response to the special operation of the Russian army in Ukraine. Nevertheless, there are continuing calls in Europe to reduce dependence on Russian energy resources. Berlin expects to stop importing coal and oil by the end of 2022, and gas by mid-2024. At the beginning of the year, Germany received almost 55 percent of its natural gas imports from Russia, but now this share has been reduced to 40 percent. Russia for gas and oilRussia launched a special operation in Ukraine on 24 February. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Defense, as of March 25, the Armed Forces completed the main tasks of the first stage — they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass. On April 19, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the start of the next phase of the special operation.Read the full text of the article on the InoSMI website >>
