There are some good podcasts on this, you can find one on Guardian Long Reads: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/02/germany-dependence-russian-energy-g

There are some good podcasts on this, you can find one on Guardian Long Reads: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/02/germany-dependence-russian-energy-gas-oil-nord-stream https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/02/germany-depend... The tldr; is it started with a stated goal of <10% dependence, thinking that by creating the first pipeline they would open up trade and normalize relations. This is a good goal especially since Germany was split in half at the time. Unfortunately through some combination of greed, complacency, and dumb nuclear strategy, dependency kept ratcheting up over the decades, slowly boiling the frog into the disaster soup we have today.