The New Geopolitical Context – A Turning Point For The Energy Relationship Between Germany And The Russian Federation

Despite the last decade's expansion of primary energy production from renewable sources, Germany has continued to maintain a high dependence on fossil fuels. Against this backdrop, as energy self-sufficiency has sharply declined in recent years, there has been a gradual increase in imports of fossil fuels from the Russian Federation, with which Germany had established an energy cooperation relationship dating back to the Cold War. The recent deterioration in the international geopolitical climate – culminating in the outbreak of Russian military aggression in Ukraine – has fundamentally altered the German authorities' perception of the reliability of the bilateral energy relationship, leading both to the decision to 'freeze' the certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and to the search for rapid alternative solutions to diversify domestic gas supplies. In view of the new international context, we aim to highlight the main measures envisaged by German decision-makers to lead to an urgent, efficient and definitive decoupling from energy imports from the Russian Federation.