BERLIN, November 29. /TASS/. Germany should purchase its energy supplies directly from Russia instead of importing them in roundabout ways via third-party intermediaries, former Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader and Left Party co-founder Oskar Lafontaine said in an interview aired by ARD TV.

Lafontaine replied affirmatively when asked whether he shares the view that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (SPD), with whom he was long at loggerheads, handled the responsibilities of high office better than incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). "Absolutely. For example, he (Schroeder - TASS) acknowledged that an industrial country needs cheap energy. It seems that Scholz does not understand this. As before, we are still obtaining energy from Russia, only now in roundabout ways, which is far costlier. It would be more logical to purchase cheap energy directly from Russia," Lafontaine said. Russian energy would become "a way to resolve many problems, including getting industry back on its feet instead of offshoring [Germany’s industrial] capacities to beyond the country’s borders," he said.

The veteran German political figure considers it unjustified to continue appropriating billions of euros for Ukraine, noting that the West has achieved nothing through supplying Kiev with arms over the past two years. "When I hear people saying that we must double our contributions to Ukraine, I find myself asking: They really cannot come to any conclusions from taking a hard look at reality? If you have chosen a path that proves to be the wrong one, you should choose another path," he stressed.

Germany’s official statistics bureau reported on September 12 that the country had imported 12 times more petroleum products from India in the first seven months of 2023 on a year-on-year basis. Germany imported mainly liquefied petroleum gas, which is used for the production of diesel and fuel oil. According to figures from the UN Comtrade database, India has been importing large volumes of crude oil from Russia since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine.

Germany opted to walk away from Russian energy imports after the start of the special military operation. The country no longer receives Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline, nor does it receive Russian pipeline gas due to the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipeline in September 2022. Research from Swiss consultancy Prognos showed that electricity rates in Germany will remain high in the coming years unless Russian gas supplies resume in full.

In 2022, Lafontaine announced his retirement after a 50-year career in politics. He served as mayor of Saarbrucken, minister-president of the state of Saarland, chancellor candidate for the SPD, leader of the SPD, and German finance minister.