Merkel on her Russian energy legacy: 'No regrets'

STORY: "You always act in the time in which you find yourself," she said at an awards event in Lisbon when asked about her government's approach to Russia, and that she had never believed in the notion of 'Wandel durch Handel', or bringing about change through trade.

"In this respect, I do not regret decisions at all, rather, I believe that it was right from the perspective of the time," she said, adding that cheap Russian gas had allowed Germany to push ahead with phasing out nuclear and coal.

Both of those landmark policies of the Merkel era have since been delayed as Germany scrambles to replace throttled gas deliveries from Russia.

Meanwhile, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline built under Merkel's watch, designed to double gas imports from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, was cancelled in the days leading up to the invasion.