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El País: Why is the German economy so weak?
(elpais.com)
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this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
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In addition, they also had their gas pipeline blown up forcing Germany to buy LNG at 10x the cost.
That is not correct. The European Union had already developed plans to reduce gas imports from Russia before the attacks on the pipelines. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has presented a ten-point plan aimed at reducing dependence on Russian gas.
Germany stopped gas supplies from Russia on August 31, 2022, which was a response to European sanctions against Russia due to the war in Ukraine. The attack on the Pipelines took place afterwards on September 26, 2022.
The prices for gas internationally went up because of the war in Ukraine. The import of gas from Russia to Germany would have been stopped anyway, even if the attacks on the Nord Stream Pipelines had not taken place.
That is correct, the EU is currently still importing vast amounts of LNG from Russia through third parties while pretending to be cutting gas imports from Russia. These "plans" EU had were not realistic in any way, shape, or form. It's just political posturing for the benefit of the people who don't understand how energy markets work.
Germany did stop supply of gas from Russia voluntarily, however blowing up the pipeline ensured that it could not resume doing so when they realized how utterly fucked they were without cheap energy.
The prices for gas internationally did not magically go up because of the war. They went up as a direct result of the actions that western powers took.