Mar 7, 2022: According to a report by AFP, Germany’s finance and foreign ministers have cautioned against banning Russian energy imports as the West searches for ways to punish Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

As his country struggles for survival two weeks after the invasion, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on his Western allies to impose additional sanctions on Moscow, including boycotting its lucrative oil and gas sector.

Earlier on Sunday, U.S Secretary Of State Antony Blinken said that as the war intensified, the United States and Europe were “very actively negotiating” to target Russian fossil fuels. But in Germany, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said such a move would be meaningless because it would not last long.

“It’s no use if in three weeks we find out that we only have a few days of electricity left in Germany and therefore we have to go back on these sanctions,” she told a German public broadcaster.

In a separate interview, she added that Germany was prepared “to pay a very, very high economic price” but “if tomorrow in Germany or Europe the lights go out, it’s not going to stop the tanks”.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner was also sceptical of an oil ban. Germany which is dependent on Russian fossil fuels, importing an estimated 55 percent of its gas and 42 percent of its oil and coal from Russia says instead of boycotting Russian energy, the next round of G7 sanctions against should hit oligarchs who have gotten rich under President Vladimir Putin.

On Thursday, the U.S and Britain added more Russian oligarchs to the blacklist of businessmen already targeted by the European Union.

On the same day, France said it had seized a French Riviera owned by a Russian oil czar, Igor Sechin. Russia is already facing a wave of sanctions designed to isolate it from the international financial system. Putin likened the global blacklist to a declaration of war.

Meanwhile, according to a Reuters report, France’s TotalEnergies says it will hang on to its Russian investments during a mass exodus of western oil majors from the country after its invasion of Ukraine, even though no sanctions have forced such divestments.

“For existing assets, the company says it will respect European sanctions whatever the consequences. But for the moment, there are no sanctions on energy,” said a source familiar with the thinking inside TotalEnergies.

“The company cannot divest assets from one day to the next unless sanctions force it to do so. One must take time to reflect,” said the source.

The French government has declined to comment on specific companies and Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron, who convened members of a Franco-Russian forum.

On the other hand, Britain’s government immediately applauded Shell’s and BP’s decision to exit Russia. Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney told employees BP “couldn’t reasonably carry on in Russia given the conflict in Ukraine,” according to a company source.

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