Klaus-Dieter Maubach's gloomy forecast soon came true: "What we experience with Gazprom can repeat itself at any time.

A business model can no longer be built on that,” said the Uniper CEO.

That was last Friday when the Russian group delivered 40 percent of the promised quantities again after the maintenance stop.

On Wednesday, this number was also waste, and the delivery was cut in half.

The Düsseldorf-based company, and with it the German gas market, becomes the plaything of the Moscow despot.

As the largest German gas importer, Uniper is at the center of the crisis, which is causing the republic to fear the coming winter.

Half of all Russian gas exports to Germany, more than a quarter of total gas consumption, went through Uniper for years.

Municipal utilities order the fuel for millions of apartments in Düsseldorf, and production in industrial companies would come to a standstill without gas from Uniper.

The company has reliably met its delivery obligations, but has maneuvered itself to the brink of bankruptcy due to the high costs of procuring replacement gas.

The heavy price losses on the stock exchange show how bad the trust in the group is, despite the state entry: It is the end of a short success story.

The company is a spin-off of the energy giant Eon, which focused entirely on grids, green electricity and energy sales as part of the energy transition.

A smorgasbord of power plants in Germany and neighboring countries went to Uniper in 2014.

The most valuable dowry, however, was the gas and trading business, which developed excellently.

The supposed Resterampe became a stock market star and finally ended up with the Finnish utility Fortum, a majority state-owned company.

Who will call the shots?

The close ties with Russia, built up by the predecessor company Ruhrgas, have so far formed a mainstay.

Now Uniper has to cut its cord completely from its long-standing partner.

Outside of the gas business, this process had already started before the invasion of Ukraine, when Uniper put its electricity production in Russia, 5 percent of total consumption, under scrutiny.

Since the outbreak of war, Moscow has stopped all payments and negotiations for the sale have been put on hold.

On the other hand, thanks to the high electricity prices, the profits of Western European power plants are bubbling up and helping to mitigate the losses in the gas business.

But for the most part, the power plant fleet does not fit into the worldview of German energy policy at all.

This applies not only to the participation in several Swedish nuclear power plants, but also to the many charcoal piles.

A particular source of conflict is Datteln 4, the youngest German coal-fired power plant, which climate protectionists would have preferred not to connect to the grid in the first place.

The federal government has already created facts for a legal dispute with the Netherlands: Uniper must drop its lawsuit against the early shutdown of a coal-fired power plant.

Alternative energies with a new status

Renewables, which are still in their infancy, will certainly play an important role in the restructuring of the group.

The same applies to LPG, which is needed to replace Russian natural gas.

Uniper is already one of the most important players in the global LNG market.

The first steps towards the hydrogen economy have also been taken.

Natural gas storage facilities are to be converted, and plans are being drawn up for an electrolysis plant and a hydrogen port in Wilhelmshaven.

There is a lot that could be built on in the future.

Another question is who will be in charge and in which direction: the parent company Fortum or the federal government with its thirty percent stake?

The Finns are still in the majority with a share that has shrunk to 56 percent.

It doesn't have to stay that way: part of the federal aid will later be converted into shares.

Then Fortum would have to buy more to stay in control.

The cards for this will be laid carefully in Helsinki.

In any case, what Fortum prefers has been shown in the rescue negotiations: They want to get out of everything that has to do with gas immediately and thus leave the security of supply to the German side.

The associated break-up would probably have plunged the group into complete chaos.

In the group of companies and with a new business model, there is at least the chance