German Approach to the Energy Crisis Resulting from Russia’s War on Ukraine Through “Treuhandverwaltung”

Abstract

The Ukrainian-Russian War caused an energy crisis in Germany. Germany imports large amounts of natural gas from Russia. Germany's dependence on Russia for natural gas supply has been a long-standing situation. For Germany, this situation was not a big problem before the Ukrainian-Russian War. However, after the Ukrainian-Russian War, the Western Bloc imposed economic sanctions against Russia. And in response, Russia also started sanctions against the Western Bloc. Russia used natural gas as a weapon to pressure Germany, but this was not limited to simply reducing or banning exports. Russia intended to liquidate Gazprom Germania GmbH, a German company belonging to the Gazprom Group. If this company went liquidated, Germany's natural gas supply and demand would be seriously disrupted, so Germany implemented trust management as an administrative measure to prevent liquidation of this company. The purpose of this paper is to review Germany's response to the energy crisis caused by the Ukraine-Russia war by examining specific cases and individual legal systems of Germany's trust management system.