In his speech at the opening of the Hannover Messe trade fair on Sunday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz admitted that anti-Russian sanctions come at a cost for the German economy, TASS reports.
"They [the sanctions] are hitting the Russian leadership and the Russian economy hard, and it gets harder and harder every day," Scholz said. "Simultaneously, we are making sure that they [sanctions] don’t hit us and our partners in Europe harder than Russia."
"It’s a good thing that businesses support this policy. I know that it entails economic losses for many companies. We are trying to prevent a more serious damage with the help of loans, premiums and targeted aid packages," he continued. "Despite this, losses are still a reality. But I will say that those losses are way smaller than the price that we will have to pay if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin succeeds."
In his words, Germany’s goal was to have the conflict in Ukraine ended as soon as possible.