The anti-nuclear sentiment isn't universal in the EU, France is strongly in favor of nuclear power, for example. Germany is one of the more vocal opponents to

The anti-nuclear sentiment isn't universal in the EU, France is strongly in favor of nuclear power, for example. Germany is one of the more vocal opponents to nuclear power. Reliance on Russian gas started in the 70s, as part of the Ostpolitik. It was a deliberate decision during the cold war under the theory that trade partners don't wage wars. The anti-nuclear stance started in the 70s as well (although a bit later) as part of the peace movement (building nukes is comparably easy when you have all the tech around as a byproduct of civilian use. See IAEA) and went in full force after Chernobyl blew up (in some parts of Germany wild mushrooms and boar are still contaminated today). It took until 2000 to bear fruits though because the Green party ("anti-nuclear" is their reason d'être) first came to federal power in 1998. The peace movement leaned left and there has been some Russian influence in left circles but it seems unlikely that 1970's Russia ran a "abolish nuclear so you buy more gas" campaign. If there has been any anti-nuclear campaign on their part it was aiming to keep nuclear weapons out of West Germany (none of the above surfaced in East Germany). The 2010/2011 detour in German politics (delaying the nuclear turn down by 14 years, then mostly re-reversing the decision after Fukushima) is just a minor side note in that (net effect: it delayed the exit by ~5 years).