German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. /
Olaf Scholz assures that his country will punish “all those who benefit from the Putin regime”
The government of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has offered to host and employ in Germany Russian citizens critical of the regime of its president, Vladimir Putin. “They would come in very handy for us in Germany,” said Federal Economy Minister Robert Habeck at the end of the extraordinary two-day meeting of Scholz’s cabinet at the Meseberg palace, north of Berlin. The also federal deputy chancellor stressed that jobs will be offered to those who have already left Russia or do not want to return. Germany urgently needs qualified personnel and has more than a million job vacancies in business and industry.
The federal chancellor in turn stressed that Russia was “completely wrong” to start a war in Ukraine. The Social Democratic politician stressed that Moscow is now facing a stronger NATO, also to the east of its territory, as well as a more united European Union. The aggression has led to the formation of a community that “ensures that Ukraine receives military support with weapons that are supplied to Ukraine”, an operation in which Germany is also participating. He also stressed that the new package of sanctions announced by Brussels serves to make Russia realize the consequences of its actions.
Scholz pointed out that during his cabinet meeting the draft law for the execution of sanctions was also discussed, which aims to facilitate the implementation of punitive measures against “all those who benefit from the Putin regime.” The government will lay the legal basis for the sanctions to be applied successfully, assured the federal chancellor, who commented that “the issue of the political consequences” of the conflict and the need to deepen the European idea during the meeting of the tripartite cabinet led by the Social Democrats, with the Greens and the Liberal Party (FDP) as partners.
Scholz, Habeck and Christian Lindner, Federal Minister of Finance and liberal leader, explained that other measures adopted are intended to limit as much as possible the damage that Germany may suffer as a result of the war in Ukraine. In this sense, the Federal Chancellor announced a law to facilitate and accelerate the construction of two terminals to receive liquefied gas by sea and to reduce the country’s dependence on Russian natural gas. Scholz also defended the decisions made so far by his government and assured that the supply of weapons to Ukraine follows “a precise line” despite criticism for the reluctance, already overcome, to send heavy material such as tanks.
The federal chancellor acknowledged that if he has not traveled to kyiv to personally express his solidarity with the Ukrainian people so far, it has been the rudeness suffered by the federal president, Frank Walter Steinmeier. “For the federal government and the people it is a problem that the invitation to the federal president was withdrawn,” Scholz said, referring to the suspended visit to kyiv in April of the German leader by the Ukrainian authorities. The head of the federal government commented that he hopes to be informed about his impressions by the leader of the conservative opposition, the Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz, who traveled to the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday.