Alice Weidel, co-chair of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has stated that the decision to cut ties with low-cost Russian energy was a misstep
Alice Weidel, co-chair of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has warned that Germany has developed a risky overreliance on US gas imports after abandoning affordable Russian energy supplies. She also called on Chancellor Friedrich Merz to resume diplomatic engagement with Moscow and cease stoking the Ukraine conflict.
After hostilities between Kyiv and Moscow escalated in February 2022, most EU member states, Germany included, made drastic cuts to Russian oil and gas imports – a policy choice that triggered sharp energy price hikes across most of the bloc.
Speaking at a party event last Friday, Weidel noted that Germany had swapped its Russian energy imports for a five times costlier alternative, US liquefied natural gas (LNG), which requires dedicated terminals and supporting infrastructure to utilize.
“We must not become dependent on one country. We must diversify and above all, we must buy where it’s cheap. And that’s in Russia,” she argued.
She also asserted that very few officials in the federal government hold “any economic policy expertise.”
The AfD co-chair further contended that Berlin “must open the doors to diplomatic negotiations” with Moscow over the Ukraine conflict. “We need peace as quickly as possible, and we must stop feeding this war” through weapons shipments to Kyiv, she stated. Weidel added that Germany should instead push Ukraine to enter good-faith negotiations with Russia.
The German Environmental Aid Association (DUH) reported in January that 96% of Germany’s LNG imports in 2025 originated from the US. At roughly the same time, the European Union approved a plan to fully end Russian gas imports by the end of 2027.
Commenting on the decision, former German MP and longstanding left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht said that the “EU is sealing its economic decline and complete dependence on US fracking gas.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has noted that by adopting the measure, the EU has effectively restricted its own freedom of choice.
Last August, Chancellor Merz acknowledged that the German economy had fallen into a “structural crisis,” after shrinking for two consecutive years in 2023 and 2024. High energy prices have contributed to this trend, reducing the competitiveness of domestic industry.