Report: Germany top buyer of Russian energy since war began

BERLIN (AP) — Germany was the biggest buyer of Russian energy during the first two months since the start of the war in Ukraine, an independent research group said Thursday.

A study published by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air calculates that Russia earned 63 billion euros ($66.5 billion) from fossil fuel exports since Feb. 24, the date Russian troops attacked Ukraine.

Using data on ship movements, real-time tracking of gas flows through pipelines and estimates based on historical monthly trade, the researchers reckoned Germany alone paid Russia about 9.1 billion euros for fossil fuel deliveries in the first two months of the war.

Claudia Kemfert, a senior energy expert at the German Institute for Economic Research who was not involved in the study, said the figures were plausible given the recent sharp increase in prices for fossil fuels. Last year Germany paid about 100 billion euros in total for imports of oil, coal and gas — a quarter of which went to Russia, she said.

The German government said it couldn't comment on estimates and declined to provide any figures of its own, saying these would need to come from companies that procure the coal, oil and gas.

Germany has faced strong criticism for its reliance on Russia fossil fuels despite warnings from allies that this could endanger its own and European security. Then-Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed back last year against U.S. efforts to sanction a Russian gas pipeline to Germany, a decision strongly backed by her successor, Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democratic Party have long advocated energy cooperation with Russia.

The pipeline was only frozen by Scholz's new center-left government shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It has since scrambled to find alternative energy supplies, particularly for Russian natural gas,...