AfD Seeks To Resume German Energy Imports From Russia Amid Supply Shocks

Russia is reportedly looking for an opening to resume sending natural gas supplies to Germany if the far-right Alternative for Germany — leading in the polls — takes control of the government.AfD has advocated ending Western sanctions against Russia and President Vladimir Putin’s top economic envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, is preparing to meet next year with AfD’s co-leaders, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, Reuters reported Friday, citing two unnamed sources. The AfD also wants the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea to be repaired and Russian deliveries restarted. The pipelines were blown up in the summer of 2022 in a sabotage.AfD’s overtures to Moscow are popular in German states that were formerly part of communist East Germany. The party scored a blowout victory in this month’s regional election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. Polling shows AfD is poised to make strong gains Sunday in another regional election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, another eastern region.Russia supplied more than a third of Germany’s crude oil and about 55 percent of its natural gas before it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Germany has replaced a large portion of the supplies from other sources but its fuel storage levels have dropped.Ms. Weidel has said cheap Russian energy has been key to reviving the German economy. “We need it back,” she told Reuters in June.Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his Christian Democrats Union party have opposed buying energy from Russia. The Christian Democrats have criticized AfD for pushing to restore Russian energy sales, calling it a betrayal of Ukraine. Mr. Merz’s approval ratings, however, are at a record low and he could be forced out if AfD keeps winning regional elections.There is also a new fuel supply danger for Germany. A drone attack on a key Saudi oil pipeline to the Red Sea has dramatically reduced Saudi exports. Three pumping stations were taken out in the attack, halting millions of barrels worth of oil daily. Saudi’s oil exports were already impacted by disruptions through key shipping channels due to the war in the Middle East. Iran has been attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz and Yemen’s Houthi militants have been attacking ships in the Red Sea.The state-owned national oil company, Saudi Aramco, has told multiple European oil refining customers that they won’t get any oil deliveries next month, Bloomberg reported. The east-west pipeline across Saudi Arabia remains shut down and it could be six weeks before oil flows return to full capacity, according to the report. It wasn’t clear if Germany was among the countries that wasn’t getting Saudi oil as Europe’s largest economy prepares for the winter heating season. About 20 percent of German homes rely on oil for heating while more than 50 percent use natural gas.Germany’s inflation rate has moved higher due to energy prices, jumping to 2.9 percent in August. The government says energy prices increased again last month due to the persisting Middle East conflict and rising prices on the crude oil markets.Other parties have established a firewall to isolate the AfD and have refused to work with the party but there is a growing opinion that policy has been a failure because AfD has grown in popularity. That possibly opens the door to giving AfD a seat at the table to push for its proposal to resume Russian energy imports.

AfD Seeks To Resume German Energy Imports From Russia Amid Supply Shocks

AfD Seeks To Resume German Energy Imports From Russia Amid Supply Shocks

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