Well yeah. Trying to subvert and control hostile foreign countries through economics has been a US tactic for decades. That's why Nixon opened trade with China, in the middle of the Cold War. It was thought economic dependencies would be a way to reduce hostilities while liberalizing and westernizing China though cultural propaganda.

And it works, but only when your side is guaranteed to be the dominant economy indefinitely.

But since China has a larger population, and just as many, if not more, natural resources than the US, the plan backfired when the Chinese economy eclipsed the US economy. Now US companies routinely censor criticisms of the Chinese government least they get banned from the world's largest economy.

Just look at how fast Merkel and Scholz withdrew their legimate interest in Nord Stream 2, after the US-Presidents applied pressure.

Yep. And considering Germany has allegedly spent over a $1 billion on Nord Stream 2, that was a considerable ask by the US, because it'll hurt Germany a lot more than Russia. In addition to losing all that investment, Germany will have to pay even more to buy oil elsewhere. Meanwhile, Russia will still be able to sell its oil, and at even higher prices. So they'll take a hair cut on NS2, but they'll quickly make it up elsewhere.

Just like China reversed the tactic, making the US nearly a vassal state to China, Putin also realized the con for what it is and made the EU heavily dependent on Russian fuel. That's really the only reason Putin felt he had enough leverage to act. With the EU and the US crippled by fuel shortages, as a result of their own sanctions, and with an incompetent leader in DC, we can yell and scream and broadcast all the anti-Russian propaganda we want, but we can't really do anything to stop him without hurting ourselves just as much.