Bavarian state economics minister Hubert Aiwanger has voiced deep concern about the negative effects of the Russia sanctions on the state’s economy: 30% of all steel used for construction comes from Russia, for instance.
Aiwanger therefore gave a clear rejection to the appeals that Germany should renounce Russian gas imports and thus intensify the pressure on Vladimir Putin. “Gas is still coming from Russia, and I say quite officially and emphatically: Thank God gas is still coming from Russia.” Otherwise, the storage facilities would have been empty long ago, the minister fears. In his opinion, private citizens who would be left without heat in the winter and the economy would suffer. Because in Bavaria, according to Aiwanger, around 220,000 jobs “depend relatively directly on Russian gas imports.”
