Moscow's decision to stop gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria will not cause significant difficulties for the two countries.
Your care can be organized in other ways.
Moscow knows that too.
The delivery settings are therefore primarily to be understood as a warning sign and as a test - for Europe and especially for Germany.
Because not only have the federal government and parts of the German economy tried for weeks to publicly emphasize their great vulnerability with regard to the failure of Russian raw material deliveries.
In addition, parts of the SPD show the unwillingness of the German left to say goodbye to the decades-long illusion of Mutlangen.
In the protests in front of the American nuclear weapons depot in Mutlangen, Baden-Württemberg, between 1983 and 1990, the left's anti-Americanism and its naivety towards Moscow's military power were manifested.
What would be required would be a rigorous write-off of political, moral and intellectual capital that not everyone is willing to muster that has been cultivated for four decades.
In reality, Germany is much better and more flexible than some of its political and economic elite make it out to be.
After previously independence from Russian oil only seemed achievable by the end of the year, it has now been possible to significantly reduce dependency within a short period of time.
Politics and business deserve praise for this.
Unfortunately, independence from Russian gas cannot be achieved that quickly, but fewer catastrophic scenarios can now be heard from the economy in the event of a stop to Russian supplies - even if a gas stop would undoubtedly entail major challenges.
Even if some experts consider Moscow to stop gas exports to Germany to be implausible, Germany should make consistent efforts to quickly reduce its dependency.
A less despondent Germany with more confidence in itself and its partners – that would send the right signal to Moscow.