Sanctions on Russian energy are a response to invasion. Apart from moral reasons, they also are meant to cripple russia so we don't have to fight them later in the baltics, in poland or romania.
So it's pretty much EU self interest here.
I might get downvoted for this, but the duty of every head of state is to ensure its country's economic and citizens well being is above anything else.
And what the EU as a whole did was exactly the opposite with the sanctions.
And no, no one would have had to fight anywhere else in Europe.
They are doing that by ensuring future conflict is much more unlikely.
If these measures were done earlier perhaps russia would not have started current invasion and we'd be much better off.
So perhaps politicians failed by being compliant up to now.
Try telling the baltics, poland, romania that they should not fear russia and continue trading... Same countries russia constantly threatens and are part of EU and NATO.
Imagine germany's position if Poland is conquered by russia.
> And no, no one would have had to fight anywhere else in Europe.
That's a bold statement considering russia's posturing, threats, history and leaked initial plans.
I’m very proud of that and I think cutting dependency on Russian gas – while we might not have necessarily wished for it to go this fast – is just plain good policy, making Germany more resilient in the future. Obviously there have been some short term bad consequences, that‘s pretty much unavoidable with any such drastic shift. But consequences have been far from catastrophic or existential for us. Germans and Europeans are going through some times that are a bit tougher – the people suffering, however, are in Ukraine.
I see Germany and Europe coming out of this more resilient and safer, especially if we make sure Putin cannot win this war.
https://www.reddit.com/r/latvia/comments/tdct34/russian_mili...
This article says the speaker is "Colonel Igor Korotchenko, formerly of the Russian General Staff and air force and currently a reserve officer".
https://www.thesun.ie/news/8513264/russian-state-tv-discusse...
Basically Germany's entire foreign policy is economic suicide and very much driven by a US stooge (Baerbock). The total penetration of the German Green Party (formerly pacifist) is an excellent example of American influence.