Putin had started to reduce the amount of natural gas he was sending to Europe last year. The price of oil surged over $100 a barrel and hours after Russia launched the attack, most prices across Europe soared by more than 30%. In July, Nord Stream 1, which is a major pipeline that goes from Russia to Germany, Putin claimed that turbines had to go through maintenance. He basically slowed that pipeline to a trickle and essentially never really turned the taps back on.