Import figures alone cannot show dependence on a particular natural gas supplier, according to Jonathan Stern, founder of the Natural Gas Research Program at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

“Europe, particularly northwestern Europe, has turned into a gas-trading region,” he said on Wednesday, adding that nobody could say where exactly the molecules coming in from a single country were used.

European Union countries have increased their consumption of natural gas in the past five years, and tend to favor pipeline-supplied gas over liquefied natural gas, which would allow a greater choice of suppliers. But they are also storing larger reserves to be more resilient if Russia cuts the gas off, as it did in 2009.

Is Germany a ‘captive’ of Russia?

Not really.

Germans view Russia more favorably than Americans do. And United States governments have been complaining about Germany’s dependence on Russian gas for years, even if Mr. Trump has done so more bluntly. But Germany has endorsed tough sanctions on Russia even when they looked likely to hurt German business, and German companies have gone along.

Last year, the German manufacturer Siemens stopped delivery of power plant turbines to a Russian partner when it emerged that it was transporting them into the disputed territory of Crimea.

“Germany refuses to see that large energy projects also have a political dimension,” said Marco Giuli, an analyst at the European Policy Center. “For the German side there is no contradiction, the general take in Germany is that energy policy is a full component of commercial, economic policy and the decision should be entirely left to commercial actors.”