Angela Merkel is squarely to blame here. She was warned about he dangers for the 16 years she was chancellor of Germany, and instead of diversifying, doubled down on Russian oil and gas, and ordered the closure of the remaining nuclear plants. So be it. The people voted for her, and apparently Germans in general are rather anti-nuclear.

Angela Merkel did not want to close the plants, but the public opinion forced her hand. The people wanted this.

perhaps she didn't properly explain that Putin can and will shut off the supply... or maybe she herself couldn't believe that he's that much of a thug.

OP's "the people wanted this" hints at a complicated background. Getting out of nuclear is a long-running social movement in Germany, with Chernobyl as a decisive event. There's a caste of of politicians and private individuals for whom this is generation-defining/a founding myth. It's the kind of thing that arthouse movies (e.g. "Das Ding am Deich") and social documentaries are made about. Discussing, for example, the particular issues of adolescents raised by parents who used to live at the protests parties in the 80s.

It bubbled over with Fukushima, the a roiling and boiling mid-life crisis for an entire subculture. Consequences or the Russia variable provided little resistance to the Zeitgeist - the biggest "I told you so" in decades. There was no planning to be done.

It's almost like spending half of your life and career under the umbrella of the USSR makes people vulnerable to be influenced by russian forces.

yes please