Leader of the party "Sarah Wagenknecht's Union - for Reason and Justice" (BSW) Sara Wagenknecht advocated continued Russian gas supplies, calling its imports beneficial for Germany. “We constantly act as if we would be doing [Russian President] Vladimir Putin a favor if we buy his gas. No, this is our advantage,” she said during a televised duel with Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-chair Alice Weidel on the Welt channel.
Wagenknecht pointed out that Germany is now forced to import “very expensive gas” from the US, and the German economy suffered "enormous damage" because of the anti-Russian sanctions. Energy prices are rising and the taxpayer has to pay for it, she noted. “All this is complete madness”, said the politician.
Germany began to refuse supplies of resources from the Russian Federation after the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. Now Germany does not receive Nord Stream gas - the pipelines were damaged in 2022 as a result of sabotage in the Baltic Sea, one of them was not previously certified by the German side.
In the current situation, the German government relies on the construction of LNG receiving terminals. The total capacity of the existing floating terminals is estimated at 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year. This is half of what was delivered in 2021 via Nord Stream.