Germany was forced to admit a massive error, with the European power becoming overly dependent on Russian oil and gas. Why did this happen?

On Sunday, 1 February 1970, top-level politicians and gas industry leaders from Germany and the Soviet Union gathered at the Kaiserhof hotel in Essen. They had arrived to celebrate the signing of a contract for the construction of the first major Russian-German gas pipeline from Siberia to the West German border near Marktredwitz in Bavaria. The agreement was concluded after nine months of intensive negotiations over the price of gas, the cost of 1.2 million tonnes of German pipes to be sold to Russia, and the terms of the credit offered to Moscow by a consortium of 17 German banks. Aware of the risk of a Russian default, the lead financial negotiator for the German banks, Friedrich Wilhelm Christians (Friedrich Wilhelm Christians), acted cautiously and requested a federal government guarantee, explaining: I do not do somersaults without a safety net, especially when performing on a trapeze. (...)
Photo by Francesco Ungaro used