I don't want to sound dismissive, but that's a characteristically western take on things.

Nord Stream 2 was largely redundant and Russia missed the window to use those pipelines against Germany by allowing it to fill it's storage.

Russia is no stranger to causing damage to itself just to ensure that their enemies also suffer.

Case in point: back in 2015, as retaliation to sanctions they banned some imports of food from the EU deeming it "unsafe for consumption"(a particularly funny reason for someone familiar with the respective food standards). Contraband was publicly destroyed, upsetting a considerable chunk of the Russian public.

He also uses these money to arm police to keep population at bay.

There's also some weird pride he takes in having gas.

May be something else is in play here, but I don't think how this can be benefitial to his cause.