German MP and right-wing AfD party leader Anton Baron has stepped forward and put forth that Germany should not sacrifice its energy security just in order to inflict sanctions on the Russian economy.

Speaking to the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper, Baron said Germany has placed its energy security in peril by seeking to punish Russia, and rejecting Russia’s cheap, abundant energy supplies. As a result, he pointed out, Germany has simply been sliding from one energy dependency to another.

He said, “We switch off nuclear power plants and coal-fired power plants, relying more and more on renewable energies, even though there are no storage facilities.”

Baron concluded that despite the ongoing military action in Ukraine which Germany opposes, Europe’s largest economy should ignore it and put its own energy security first by returning to importing Russian gas.

He said, “Russian gas was a blessing for the [German] economy and our prosperity… to say that by using [Russian gas] we are financing Putin’s war is nonsense.” 

He went on to argue that since German citizens require the gas to heat their homes, “we cannot make it dependent on war conditions – it’s a pure necessity.”

Uwe Schulz,  another German MP, acknowledged earlier in the week that the sanctions, far from destabilizing Russia, have had little effect on Moscow, as they have savaged the German economy.

He said, “Sanctions against Russia… are leading Germany and its economic activity straight to de-industrialization,” adding that the government should immediately “lift economic sanctions against Russia” so as to “prevent [further] economic damage.”

Prior to 2022, Russia supplied roughly 40% of Germany’s gas needs. When Russian energy deliveries to Europe collapsed last year, Germany was among the hardest nations hit. Following the imposition of multiple rounds of sanctions on Moscow by Brussels last year, and then a sabotage bombing of the primary pipeline delivering natural gas to Europe, the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, as well as its sister pipeline the Nord Stream 2, which had not yet begun operation, energy deliveries from Russia were significantly reduced or entirely halted.

As a result, the German group of gas-storage operators INES warned that at least until the winter of 2026/2027, Germany will be at risk of gas shortages.