[holgerschurig]

> German politicians should have taken their energy security more seriously back in the 2010s

Well, any country.

Did you know that Poland imported most of their fossil fuels from Russia also?

Or, that today, Bulgaria still imports all (that is, 100% !!!) oil from Russia?

People like to blame Germany, and they point to North Stream. Few people looked at a map of oil and gas pipelines of Europe ... noticing that MOST of them are in eastern- and southern europe. All of europe depended on cheap russian fossil energy, not just Germany.

Map of oil & gas pipelines, centered on central and western europe:

https://theodora.com/pipelines/europe_oil_gas_and_products_p...

Only gas pipelines, but showing eastern europe much better. Note that the amount of pipelines in Germany seems to be higher ... but also notice that a good part of them run from the northsea towards the industrial areas. The pipeline system was never designed to be run solely by Russian fossil fuel, unlike the ones in eastern europe countries.

http://www.mappery.com/maps/Europe-Proposed-Natural-Gas-Pipe...

[negative_zero]

Poland was legally obligated to purchase Russian gas based on an agreement signed in the early 90s.

The writing was on the wall for years. The difference is that Poland started constructing an alternative pipeline to Norway. Poland also appealed to an arbitration panel to have the Russian gas contract right to renewal clause removed (which it was successful in doing).

Germany meanwhile doubled down on Russian gas and built Nordstream 1 & 2.