Troubled times: Rhine route back on map for German oil traders

The European energy crisis can sometimes give us the impression that we are turning backwards through history.

An expansionist Russia confronting “liberal” Western powers in the Black Sea has more than an echo of the so-called Great Game that was played out in the mid-19th century.

Slightly less archaically, we have seen Germany willing to temper its decarbonisation ambitions by reactivating coal-fired power stations to cope with the restriction of Russian gas flows.