Comment by deltaknight

There are suspicions that German energy policy was effectively controlled/influenced by Russia in the early 2000s.

E.g the ex chancellor is now paid handsomely https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/world/europe/schroder-ger...

I believe more recently there was an expose about some other politicians at that time having links to Russia, although don’t have them to hand right now.