The West has to reduce energy dependency on Russia

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has told CNBC that the West has to work “very hard” to find alternative sources of energy beyond Russia as talks of potential sanctions intensify.

Speaking to CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at the annual Munich Security Conference, Scholz stressed that much of the West is reliant upon Russia’s energy supplies.

“There is a lot of exports of oil, coal and gas from Russia to many countries – there is also a big [export] of oil to the United States,” he said Saturday.

“So we all have to work very hard to produce a situation where we have alternatives. It’s necessary that we also make it feasible that there is good cooperation – that we come back to a situation where…