German Foreign Minister on Putin’s Contradictions

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Foreign Minister Baerbock, let me ask you whether you feel you have faced Putin down over this oil. You have all been saying that he’s been extorting you and blackmailing you with demands to be paid for oil and gas in rubles and not euros, and then saying that he was going to cut off the exports. This has not transpired. He hasn’t and they’re still running. And he will continue to accept euros. Do you feel that you faced him down?

ANNALENA BAERBOCK, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, I wish I could say yes to this question, but this will be only the case when Ukraine is free again and when people in Ukraine can live in peace again, because the overall goal is that this bombing ends, and that citizens of Ukraine can live safety in their country again. So, unfortunately, even though it was very important that we gave a strong answer on this ruble question, that we are not being blackmailed, and that we are not playing games, but this is only one minor part, because the most important thing is that this bombing of civilians end. And you’re Kyiv right now, you know how the situation is, for example, in Mariupol, that there are still more than 100,000 civilians in the city. And even though Putin is saying every other day that he is having, as he is calling it, peace negotiations, but on the same moment, he is bombing Mariupol, he is bombing so-called humanitarian corridors. He’s not allowing medicine and food inside the cities, which is obviously a violation of humanitarian law. So, it’s war crimes. So, you cannot say on the one hand that you are having so-called peace negotiations and on the other hand, you are bombing hospitals. And unfortunately, we see that his game is not only about ruble or euros being paid for gas, but it is still the question that we need an end to these bombings.