Oh, it was more than just the Russian propaganda. Many of the best Western financial energy commodity traders (both US and EU) saw it as a clear possibility.

Two things of note:

• Europe has experiences statistically very mild winter, with no long cold spells (-10 - -20C for 1-4 weeks at a time)

• natgas reserves in major countries have stayed at higher than normal levels due to extreme energy conservation and the mild weather

However, according to the best of Western NatGas energy experts, not enough LNG capacity will be built for winter 23-24 in most of Europe. Also, by this time next year, all the remaining natgas reserve storages should have run out (as LNG cannot replenish fast enough)

So, next winter will most likely be another test and another waiting of "let's see how cold the winter will be".

Of course, as major manufacturers in France, Italy; Netherlands and Germany have completely shut down their operations due to lack of / too high cost of NatGas, it could be that there is less demand next winter.

In any case, if that happens, USA achieved their goals (as per RAND white paper: destroy EUrope's manufacturing capacity by removing cheap Russian natural gas).