The gas is not standing by itself, Russia refused to sell it as a reaction to Western help to Ukraine and sanctions. Getting it running again would require nati

The gas is not standing by itself, Russia refused to sell it as a reaction to Western help to Ukraine and sanctions. Getting it running again would require nations to go beg to Russia, who would probably ask for all the sanctions removed and help to Ukraine stop. But I'm pretty sure both US and various EE countries would not want to do that, leading to fracture and instability in EU and NATO in pretty critical time. For example people of Poland, which hosts literally millions of Ukrainian refugees would probably freak out if what they see as "rich west people" start complaining about money and ask for support for Ukraine to stop because gas is now expensive. To summarise, we can't buy the Russian gas because they would ask us to do unacceptable things for it, and it would probably destroy EU from within. That's my take at least. Also seems that someone is taking that choice away now, with blowing up Nord Stream. As for the impact of sanctions and the energy war, I'm not an expert but I find Perun's videos pretty insightful - but I admit "hour long powerpoint presentation by military analyst on youtube" is pretty strange genre. This video touches on sanctions, economy and the energy war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce5TR-qWCk4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce5TR-qWCk4 You're right I was pretty blasé about the suffering of people, and partially it's because I live pretty close to Ukraine, but still I shouldn't have.