Why can’t Germany kick its addiction to Russian energy?

Despite imposing economic sanctions on Russia, the European Union has been importing record amounts of liquefied natural gas (LNG), a report has found. Russian LNG is exempted from the EU’s sanctions. A German state-controlled energy company appears to play a major role in this circumvention of sanctions. It’s not the only indicator that Germany is more reluctant to break its old ties with Russia than it lets on.

According to data collated by the commodities intelligence firm Kpler and first reported on by the news outlet Politico, the EU imported 837,300 metric tons of Russian LNG in the first 15 days of 2025 alone, up from 760,100 tons last year. There is a combination of factors at play to explain this increase. For one thing, there was increased demand for energy due to a cold December combined with a so-called ‘Dunkelflaute’ – cloudy, windless weather, which makes renewable energy production less efficient.