Merkel called the decision to continue buying gas from Russia after 2014 correct

Germany's decision to continue buying Russian gas after Crimea's reunification with Russia was not a mistake. This was stated by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an interview with ZEIT, published on Youtube on February 5.

"It was not a mistake to get cheap gas for a few more years <...>. And then it was absolutely right to break energy relations with Russia," she said.

According to Merkel, before the conflict with Russia, Kiev did not oppose supplying European countries with Russian gas, but only wanted this gas to go through Ukraine.

"That's why we were in favor of the gas transit agreement. If I had said then that we would stop buying gas from Russia and, accordingly, Ukraine would stop receiving money for transit, I would have been criticized," the former chancellor noted, adding that earlier the volume of revenues from transit was almost equal to Ukraine's defense budget.

Merkel also emphasized that, given the world situation, European countries should stick together.

"Germany is the biggest country in Europe. Let some other [European countries] not always stick to all agreements, nevertheless we should try to do our best to make sure that Europe sticks together. This is what I have been striving for during the 16 years I have been chancellor," she concluded.

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Earlier, on January 28, German Vice Chancellor and Green Party candidate for Chancellor Robert Habeck said that the current U.S. administration, as well as China and Russia want to destroy the European way of life, and therefore Europe needs to find a united position to counter this.

Prior to this, on January 16, former German Finance Minister Oscar Lafontaine called for the immediate lifting of sanctions against Russia, which have already caused enormous damage to the EU.

The Financial Times reported on January 30 that the EU was discussing resuming gas supplies from Russia as part of a settlement over Ukraine. An unnamed European official added that "everyone wants to reduce the cost of buying energy."

On January 1, 2025, Gazprom said it would suspend gas supplies through Ukraine. On the same day, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo noted that this would have drastic consequences for the European Union, but not for Russia.

At the end of August 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (his term expired in May 2024) said that the country would not renew its gas transit agreement with Russia, which expired at the end of 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin later pointed out that Moscow did not refuse to transit gas through Ukraine.