Germany will halve its imports of Russian oil by the summer, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Friday as he laid out measures to boost the nation’s energy independence.Habeck, who is also Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s deputy, spoke of considerable progress in a short space of time, as Western nations seek to cut off economic ties with Moscow as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. On top of the reduction in oil imports, Germany hopes to wean itself off Russian coal completely by the summer or autumn of this year. In the case of gas, Habeck said his country could become largely independent of Russian imports by the summer of 2024. “In the past few weeks, we have undertaken intensive efforts with all the relevant actors to import fewer fossil fuels from Russia and broaden the basis of our supply,” Habeck told reporters in Berlin. The announcement came just days after Habeck returned from a trip to the Gulf, where he agreed deals on supplies of hydrogen and liquefied natural gas. NN: They are playing us for fools. German natural gas demand always falls in half by summer. Thats because winter heating demand in the very cold winter is over……