I’m with #8, this just doesn’t make much sense in “Great Game” terms. They have no reason to be mad at Germany and no reason to want their continental customers think they like to jerk them around for fun. They’re not the only game in town after all.
The russkies have a long-standing mania for covering up their boo-boos (see the classic “Uncovering Soviet Disasters” by space-guy James F. Oberg from 20 years ago). I think it’s maintenance or breakage and the ivans are reflexively covering up.
They are not savvy when it comes to business. Russia bullies little countries, restarts flyovers of U.S.A. facilities, and cuts oil supply to Germany - this shows a definite lack logic. Putin is just trying to show how tough he is and comes off looking stupid.