Why is Russian oil so enticing to Germany?

Friendship, or Druzhba in Russian, is the name of the pipeline that transports Russian oil to Germany.

Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, on the other hand, has shattered any remaining feelings of affection.

Druzhba began operations in the 1960s, delivering oil from the Soviet Union to Schwedt in former communist East Germany across a distance of almost 5,000 kilometers.

The Schwedt refinery is critical to the European Union’s plan to phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022.

The German government has decreased its reliance on Russian oil from 35 percent to 12 percent since the invasion.

All of it goes to the Schwedt refinery.

People here are anxious about the impact of an embargo on German regions like these, where tens of thousands of people rely on Russian energy for their livelihood.

“We are quite concerned and astonished,” says Annekathrin Hoppe, the mayor of Schwedt.