A RECESSION WORSE THAN ANY OTHER THE PAINFUL PROSPECT OF CHANGING TO LIFE WITHOUT RUSSIAN GAS

BERLIN n 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.

- Kate Connolly

"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 that produces everything from battery cases for electric cars to clutch systems for trains.

He did not want to be named, or for his company to be identified, in part for fear, he said, of appearing to support Russia's war by making the case that, if the gas is turned off, his century-old business is likely not to survive. But he says he is in a deep quandary and feeling vulnerable, as he is not only heavily reliant on gas the cost of which has already soared - but also on metals such as nickel and aluminium, much of which comes from Russia.

Germany gets about 50bn cubic metres, roughly 55%, of its gas every year from Russia, the largest by volume of any EU country and, by extension, the biggest share of any large European economy.

Two possible, not unlikely scenarios are being mooted: in one, Moscow cuts off or reduces supplies in retaliation for sanctions; in the other, Germany gives in to mounting pressure to support an EU energy embargo and the recipients would effectively call Putin's bluff by cutting themselves off from Russian supplies.