Past a nudist beach and a sleepy marina, a gigantic mesh of metallic pipes rises from the pine forest behind the tiny village of Lubmin on Germany’s Baltic coast.
If few people have heard of Lubmin, from Berlin to Washington almost everyone seems to know the name of the two gas pipelines arriving here directly from Russia: Nord Stream 1, which carries almost 60 million cubic meters of natural gas per year to keep Europe’s biggest economy humming. And Nord Stream 2, built to increase that flow but abruptly shuttered in the run-up to Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
The pair of pipelines has become a twin symbol of Germany’s dangerous dependence on Russian gas — and the country’s belated and frenzied effort to wean itself off it — with calls growing for the European Union to hit Moscow with tougher sanctions as atrocities come to light in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive branch, proposed banning imports of Russian coal and soon, possibly, its oil. But Russian gas — far more critical to Germany and much of the rest of Europe — was off the table. At least for now.
“We are dependent on them,” said Axel Vogt, the mayor of Lubmin, which has a population of just 2,119, as he stood in the industrial harbor between the two pipelines one recent morning. “None of us imagined Russia ever going to war. Now Russia is one of our main suppliers of gas and that’s not something we can change overnight.”
That dependence on Russia — accounting for more than a quarter of Germany’s total energy use — has meant that Berlin has so far refused to cut off President Vladimir V. Putin, whose war it is effectively subsidizing to the tune of an estimated 200 million euros, or about $220 million, in energy payments every day.
The images of mass graves and murdered civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha have horrified Europe and spurred demands for a Russian energy embargo, especially among Germany’s eastern neighbors.
“Buying Russian oil and gas is financing war crimes,” said Gabrielius Landsbergis, the foreign minister of Lithuania, which has stopped all Russian gas imports. “Dear E.U. friends, pull the plug. Don’t be an accomplice.”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany reacted swiftly to the images from Bucha, condemning the “war crimes committed by the Russian military,” expelling 40 Russian diplomats and promising new and tougher sanctions on Moscow. Germany’s network regulator went so far as to take over the German subsidiary of Gazprom, Russia’s main gas company and owner of Nord Stream.
But government ministers have, for now, ruled out a ban on Russian gas imports. The reasons are clear.
One in two German homes is heated with gas, and gas also powers much of Germany’s vaunted export industry. For years, Berlin happily relied on Moscow for more than half of its gas imports, a third of its oil and half of its hard coal imports, ignoring warnings from the United States and other allies about Russia weaponizing its energy supplies.
Quitting that habit will not be easy in the short term without a shock to a German economy that like others in Europe is still recovering from the pandemic.
“Our strategy is to become independent of Russian gas, coal and oil — but not immediately,” said Robert Habeck, Germany’s economy minister and vice chancellor, who has been busy traveling to Qatar and Washington in search of alternative gas contracts.
The government is taking steps to make Germany independent of Russian coal by the summer, and of Russian oil by the end of the year. Already, the share of oil imports from Russia has fallen to 20 percent and Russian coal imports have been halved.