I had this secret. I robbed banks in my spare time.

Lives less ordinary from the BBC World Service.

This is not a good thing to do because police are after you.

Find out more at the end of this podcast.

Welcome to The Inquiry. I'm Tanya Beckett, each week one question for expert witnesses and an answer.

A pipeline that stretches over 1,000 kilometres and costs over 15 billion dollars to build,

extending under the Baltic Sea all the way from the coast of Russia to Germany's north.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline was built as a sign of trust between Berlin and Moscow

that Russian gas would continue to fire the German economy for many decades to come.

And for the last 10 years, a fifth of Russia's gas exports have gone to Germany.

Russian gas has generated electricity across much of Europe,

but now in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine,

Europe wants to turn its back on Moscow and stop buying its gas.

So in this week's inquiry, we're asking,

can Europe give up Russian gas?

Part 1. The power of connection.

Europe's love affair with Russian gas began way back in the 1960s.

At that time, Soviet Russia was in the grip of the Cold War,

and the standoff between Moscow and the West meant that trade relations between the two

were decidedly cool. But as Soviet power reached its height,

there came an important moment. The discovery of massive oil and gas reserves in Siberia,

it meant that Moscow now had something that power hungry West in Europe was eager and ready to buy.

...