Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has exposed Germany as Europe’s largest, strongest, and most globally connected economy in its dangerous dependence on the flow of Russian gas. Russia reduced gas supplies in June for the main pipeline Nord Stream 1 to below 40 percent, before cutting them altogether on July 11 to allow for routine annual ten-day maintenance. Gas resumed flowing through the end of July and August, but it was throttled to barely 20 percent of the previous amount. And in early September, the Kremlin stopped the flow entirely in order to pressure Europe to remove sanctions on Russian oil. Is the German model of prosperity in danger?
Leave a Reply