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From Nord-Stream-Pipelines: Ein Anschlag mit politischer Sprengkraft?, tagesschau.de, 20 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
It is a game with the longing for the old, sanction-free times when Russian gas was cheap to get.
Word for word: It is a game with the longing for the old, sanction-free times, in which Russian gas cheap to have was.
The sentence says that something amounts to playing on nostalgia for the era before sanctions, when Russian gas could be obtained cheaply. It would appear in journalistic or analytical writing about energy politics.
'Es ist ein Spiel...' uses es as a grammatical subject with sein in the present tense and a predicate noun in the nominative. The prepositions mit and nach govern the dative (der Sehnsucht). The relative clause 'in denen ... war' has a dative plural relative pronoun referring back to 'Zeiten', with the finite verb war at the end. 'günstig zu haben' is a zu-infinitive used predicatively with sein in the preterite.
Rules at work(10)
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Es ist ein Spiel
With sein, both the subject es and the predicate noun Spiel are nominative.
The nominative marks the subject of the clause: whoever or whatever is doing the verb. It is also the case used after the verbs sein, werden and bleiben, so both sides of Das ist mein Bruder stand in the nominative.
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mit der Sehnsucht nach den alten, sanktionsfreien Zeiten
Both mit and nach always govern the dative, giving der Sehnsucht and den Zeiten.
Aus, außer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von and zu always take the dative. Several of them contract with the article: von dem becomes vom, zu der becomes zur.
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in denen russisches Gas günstig zu haben war
The relative pronoun denen refers back to Zeiten and opens the clause, with the finite verb war at the end.
A relative pronoun takes its gender and number from the noun it refers back to, and its case from the job it does inside the relative clause. The clause is verb-final and always separated by a comma.
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russisches Gas günstig zu haben war
As a relative clause, the finite verb war must stand at the end.
In a subordinate clause the finite verb stands last. Where the clause also holds a participle or an infinitive, the finite verb goes after them, so the order at the end is participle then auxiliary.
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günstig zu haben
The sein + zu + infinitive construction marks a passive-like sense: gas was cheap to have.
Many verbs, adjectives and nouns take an infinitive introduced by zu, which stands at the end of its clause. With a separable verb the zu goes between the prefix and the stem, giving aufzustehen.
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Es ist ein Spiel
The statement opens with the dummy subject es, so the finite verb ist stands in second position.
In a German main clause the finite verb is always the second element. The first element can be the subject, but it can just as easily be a time expression, an object or a whole subordinate clause; whatever it is, it counts as one element and the verb follows it. This is why putting something other than the subject first pushes the subject after the verb.
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in denen
In expresses time within which, so it takes the dative plural denen.
An, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor and zwischen take the accusative when the phrase answers where to, and the dative when it answers where. The distinction is movement across a boundary against position, not motion against stillness.
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war
Written narrative style prefers the simple preterite of sein over the perfect.
The simple past is the written narrative past. In speech it survives mainly in sein, haben and the modals, where hatte and war are far commoner than the perfect forms.
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den alten, sanktionsfreien Zeiten
After the determiner den both coordinated adjectives take the weak dative plural ending -en.
After a definite article the adjective ending is e in the five nominative and accusative singular slots and en everywhere else, because the article has already shown the case and gender.
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russisches Gas
With no article present, the adjective carries the strong nominative neuter ending -es itself.
With no article in front of it the adjective has to carry the case marking itself, so it takes the endings the definite article would have had, with the exception of the masculine and neuter genitive singular.
Does this rule belong on this sentence?
Words(18)
- es
it
pronounA1personal
Often a dummy subject, as in es geht darum.
- sein
to be
verbA1sein, war, ist gewesenmit seinirregular
Copula here linking subject to predicate noun.
- ein
a, an, one
determinerA1indefinite
The form einer here is dative feminine singular, not the pronoun meaning 'one'.
- das Spiel
game, playing
nounA1pl. Spielegen. Spielsstrong declension
In 'ein Spiel mit etwas' it means toying or playing with something figuratively.
- mit
with, by (means of transport)
prepositionA1governs dative
Always dative, including travel: 'mit dem Bus, mit dem Rad'.
- der
the
determinerA1definite
Appears twice: dative feminine 'der Wirtschaft' and nominative plural 'die Beschlüsse'.
- die Sehnsucht
longing, yearning
nounB2pl. Sehnsüchtegen. Sehnsuchtstrong declension
Fixed pattern: Sehnsucht nach + dative.
- nach
after
prepositionA1governs dative
With places it means movement towards; here temporal 'after'.
- alt
old
adjectiveA1älter, am ältesten / das älteste
- sanktionsfrei
sanction-free, free of sanctions
adjectiveC1
- die Zeit
time
nounA1pl. Zeitengen. Zeitinvariable declension
- in
in, into
prepositionA1governs accusative or dative
Dative for location, accusative for direction.
- denen
in which, in whom
pronounA2relative
Dative plural relative pronoun; required here because in takes dative for static meaning.
- russisch
Russian
adjectiveA2
- das Gas
gas
nounA2pl. Gasegen. Gasesstrong declension
- günstig
favourable, beneficial, cheap
adjectiveB1günstiger, am günstigsten
Means 'favourable/beneficial' here, not 'cheap'; the price sense applies mainly to goods and services.
- zu
marker before infinitives
particleA1
Only certain verbs and expressions allow a zu-infinitive; it also exists as a preposition 'to'.
- haben
to have
verbA1haben, hatte, hat gehabtmit habenirregular
As an auxiliary it forms the perfect tenses of most verbs.