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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Kate Connolly in Berlin

‘Firms will go bust’: Germany prepares for a future without Russian gas

The words ‘No money for murderers' and 'stop the oil and gas trade’ are projected onto a building
The words ‘No money for murderers’ and ‘Stop the oil and gas trade’ are projected by activists on to the Russian consulate in Frankfurt, Germany. Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

In Germany, they call it “Day X”. Businesses up and down the land are making contingency plans for what is seen as a growing likelihood that Russian gas will stop flowing into Europe’s biggest economy.

“It would be a disaster – one which would have seemed almost unthinkable just two months ago, but which right now feels like a very realistic prospect,” the owner of a hi-tech mechanical engineering company in western Germany said. The firm produces everything from battery cases for electric cars to train clutch systems.

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