zlacker

> enormous penalties in case of breaching contract.

penalties they could simply just ignore if they choose to. After all, they forced the sale in rubles, despite this not being part of the initial agreement of gas sales.

blowing it up seems just too much of shooting-self-in-the-foot for russia, unless russia can confidently lay the blame onto the west (particularly, the US) as the culprit.

>>chii+(OP)
One cannot ignore penalties if one is on the supply side. Gazprom pumps the gas, Germany says "thank you, we will not pay for it because you owe us penalties". All they can do is stop pumping.

And Russia immediately laid the blame onto the West, and never stopped. Maybe we are now looking at the part of that continuous effort.