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\u2019s Baltic coast.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s biggest economy humming. And Nord Stream 2, built to increase that flow but abruptly shuttered in the run-up to Russia\u2019s attack on Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The pair of pipelines has become a twin symbol of Germany\u2019s dangerous dependence on Russian gas \u2014 and the country\u2019s belated and frenzied effort to wean itself off it \u2014 with calls growing for the European Union to hit Moscow with tougher sanctions<\/a> as atrocities come to light in Ukraine.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the European Commission, the E.U.\u2019s executive branch, proposed banning imports of Russian coal and soon, possibly, its oil<\/a>. But Russian gas \u2014 far more critical to Germany and much of the rest of Europe \u2014 was off the table. At least for now.<\/p>\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n Germany is scrambling to wean itself off Russian gas, as it effectively subsidizes President Vladimir Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine to the tune of some $220 million a day.https:\/\/t.co\/YbcL2mKzq4<\/a><\/p>\n — The New York Times (@nytimes) April 6, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n