Ukraine war: Scholz finds Russia’s attack “extremely stupid”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of jeopardizing Russia’s future by attacking Ukraine. “The war is also extremely stupid from a Russian perspective,” he said on Saturday at a citizens’ dialogue as an SPD member of the Bundestag in Prenzlau, Brandenburg. Putin is inciting hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers to serious injuries and death for his imperialist dreams and is destroying Russia’s economic relations with many countries around the world. “And Ukraine will have a stronger army afterward than it had before,” Scholz added.

Germany will continue to support Ukraine militarily so that the invaded country does not collapse and because it is necessary for a blatant breach of the rules in Europe to succeed. “Putin is destroying his country’s future.” A peaceful solution can only be achieved if Russia accepts that Ukraine is not a vassal state.

At the same time, however, the Chancellor stressed that he would definitely remain opposed to the idea that Ukraine should not use long-range weapons supplied by Germany to attack targets deep in Russia. “That remains the case,” said Scholz. “That is why I am sticking to my position, even if other countries decide differently,” added Scholz, referring to the USA or some European countries. “I will not do that because I think it is a problem.”

In reference to reports that the US could lift its existing restrictions, he also pointed out that not all speculations are necessarily correct. In recent months, the US and Germany have coordinated very closely on arms deliveries to Ukraine. Both countries are by far the biggest military supporters of the Eastern European country.

Scholz described the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea as a “terrorist act” and will bring the perpetrators to justice in Germany. He said he had made a clear decision. “It is: We call on all security authorities and the Federal Prosecutor General to investigate without regard to anything.” “Nothing will be covered up,” he stressed. “We want to bring those who did this to court in Germany if we can get hold of them.”

Scholz also described it as a “real, big, fat lie” that the German government had renounced Russian natural gas. It was Russia that turned off the gas tap through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The subsequent price explosion, the state-capped prices and the search for other gas supplies cost Germany “well over 100 billion euros”. The bomb attacks on the pipeline were only carried out when Russia had already stopped supplying Western Europe through the Baltic Sea.

In August, the Federal Prosecutor General issued a first arrest warrant against a Ukrainian citizen for the act of sabotage.

His trip to Central Asia will also be about oil, says Scholz

In the struggle for the future of the PCK refinery in Schwedt, Scholz expects that the sales negotiations for the shares of the Russian state-owned company Rosneft will be concluded by the end of the year.

Two German subsidiaries of Rosneft own around 54 percent of the important industrial plant in Brandenburg. They are currently under federal trust administration, but are to be sold. Negotiations are ongoing, which is why the federal government has extended the trust administration once again, said Scholz. We know who is talking to Rosneft. “We hope and assume that everything will be clear by the end of the year, so that we can then use the time after that to get things sorted out.”

The Chancellor also referred to his upcoming trip to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The issue of the Central Asian oil refinery will also be discussed there. Scholz did not provide any details. “I have a lot of things to discuss, but this issue also plays a role,” he simply said.

The refinery in the Uckermark supplies northern Germany with gasoline, diesel, heating oil and other products. It previously only processed Russian oil from the Druzhba pipeline. Due to the Russian attack on Ukraine, the German government decided to stop using Russian pipeline oil from the beginning of 2023. Since then, the refinery has switched to other sources of supply and partly also uses crude oil from Kazakhstan. However, the plant is still less utilized than before the changeover.