As Germany’s next government takes shape, conservative negotiators are weighing whether Russian gas could still have a role in the country’s energy future.
BERLIN — Germany’s conservatives appear increasingly willing to restart the flow of Russian gas — at least in theory.
“If one day a just and secure peace [with Ukraine] is established, then we should also be able to discuss purchasing Russian gas again,” said Jan Heinisch, a politician with the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and a negotiator in his party’s federal coalition talks with the center-left Social Democratic Party.
“Never again in the same dependency as before, not under a price dictate — but Russia is one supplier among many in the world,” he told POLITICO.
Heinisch, from the energy and climate working group in the coalition negotiations, is tasked with shaping energy policy for a CDU-led German government under chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz.
His remarks follow a recent LinkedIn post by fellow CDU politician Thomas Bareiß, a negotiator for infrastructure policy under the incoming coalition, who suggested that Europe could ultimately return to Russian gas via the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline linking Germany and Russia, which was shelved in February 2022 after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
“Thinking a few years ahead, some surprises might emerge,” Bareiß wrote. “When peace returns and the weapons between Russia and Ukraine fall silent, relations will normalize, sanctions will be lifted, and of course, gas can start flowing again — perhaps this time through a pipeline under U.S. control.”
Bareiß framed his argument around market realities, claiming that pipeline gas from Russia would remain more affordable and climate-friendly than liquefied natural gas. He also flagged reports of United States investor interest in reviving Nord Stream 2, whose future remains uncertain after a 2022 sabotage attack.
Any revival of Russian gas flows, however — especially via Nord Stream 2 — could reignite tensions with Germany’s Eastern European allies. Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine fiercely opposed the pipeline long before it was damaged in 2022, arguing it deepened Europe’s reliance on Russian energy and deprived Ukraine of income and influence by bypassing its transit network.
