Germany Blocks Incoming Russian Flights After Having Its Flights Rejected by Moscow Amid Belarus Tension

Flights originating in Russia? - or just Russian owned A/C?

concur

Point taken, but also question what Russia has to sell besides fossil fuels... I suspect they'll want to sell as much gas as they can, before the emerging green technologies take a bite out of those profits.

Besides caviar and vodka, what consumer goods do you associate with Russia?

Merkel is retiring and isn’t going to want a backing-down to become her legacy.

Only about 12% of Germany’s energy needs are met using natural gas, and Russia supplies about half of that. If Russia were to shut off the pipeline, it would create a small but significant energy crunch (primarily for domestic uses like heating and cooking) for the Germans, but it would have a much bigger impact on Russia’s economy. Gazprom (the majority owner of the Nord Stream pipeline and a monopoly in Russia) exports about US $25B of natural gas annually and the country is heavily dependent on the revenue and jobs from oil and gas exports. Germany also has alternative sources of natural gas in the North Sea that can increase production to compensate, so while prices would go up, the supply is there.

For Germany, shutting down Nord Stream 1/2 would be an inconvenience; for Russia, it would be a major headache.