There is no such thing as a quick back story with Russia supplying gas to anybody. There were gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine that along with everything else seemed to morph into a Ukrainian Coup in 2014 by the West. Which morphed along with everything else into the current Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Russia–Ukraine gas disputes -Wiki
The Russia–Ukraine gas disputes refer to a number of disputes between Ukrainian oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrayiny and Russian gas supplier Gazprom over natural gas supplies, prices, and debts. These disputes have grown beyond simple business disputes into transnational political issues—involving political leaders from several countries—that threaten natural gas supplies in numerous European countries dependent on natural gas imports from Russian suppliers, which are transported through Ukraine. Russia provides approximately a quarter of the natural gas consumed in the European Union; approximately 80% of those exports travel through pipelines across Ukrainian soil prior to arriving in the EU.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93Ukraine_gas_disputes
Nord Stream pipelines sabotage -Wiki
The 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage were a series of clandestine bombings and subsequent underwater gas leaks that occurred on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines on 26 September 2022. The sabotage happened as the Baltic Pipe was being opened for natural gas to come in from the North Sea through Denmark to Poland; however, the perpetrators' identities and the motives behind the sabotage remain debated. Both pipeline pairs were built to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, and are majority owned by the Russian majority state-owned gas company, Gazprom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Nord_Stream_pipeline_sabotage
Enter the Merkel saying that with Nord Stream Washington was using Russia as a scapegoat to steal a massive new energy market for itself.
29 Nov 2024 - Merkel blows a hole in Washington’s Nord Stream narrative
Angela Merkel has just dropped a smoking gun into the pages of her new book. According to ‘Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021’, published on November 26, Berlin was fully aware that Washington wanted to kill off Nord Stream. And that it was just using Russia as a scapegoat to steal a massive new energy market for itself.
“The United States argued that its security interests were affected by the building of the pipeline because its ally Germany would make itself too dependent on Russia. In truth, I felt that the United States was mobilizing its formidable economic and financial resources to prevent the business ventures of other countries, even their allies,” Merkel writes.
Biden had stood beside Scholz at a White House podium in February 2022, talking like a mafia boss, saying that “there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2” if Russia enters Ukraine. Then the pipeline just mysteriously blew up in September 2022. Germany still hasn’t found those responsible, though.
https://www.rt.com/news/608402-merkel-us-nord-stream-narrative/
Hmm, re-enter President-elect Donald Trump who put sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in 2019 for security reasons. The more things change the more they stay the same.
21 Dec 2019 - Nord Stream 2: Trump approves sanctions on Russia gas pipeline
President Donald Trump has signed a law that will impose sanctions on any firm that helps Russia's state-owned gas company, Gazprom, finish a pipeline into the European Union.
The sanctions target firms building Nord Stream 2, an undersea pipeline that will allow Russia to increase gas exports to Germany.
The US considers the project a security risk to Europe.Both Russia and the EU have strongly condemned the US sanctions.
The Trump administration fears the pipeline will tighten Russia's grip over Europe's energy supply and reduce its own share of the lucrative European market for American liquefied natural gas.
I am not sure if we have heard the last about Nord Stream or American security concerns.