she might have made a strategic décision to keep German nuclear power, rather than relying so heavily on gas from the east?

In Germany gas is mainly used for heating, then for industrial purposes and only 10.5% (2021) for generating power. Why this focus on "keeping nuclear power" then? Merkel killed the German wind and solar industries. That is the strategic decision she must be blamed for, but not for the decision to eventually end nuclear power when there was a large majority demanding this end. Even before Fukushima there was a lot of fury in the environmentalist movement when she tried to prolong the lives of nukes. The movement built up rapidly. There was a lot of creativity spent on actions against nukes. It was lovely to see the growth of resistance against her decision. We expected to have a lot of fun and a lot of success. Ha! Then Fukushima... Only a complete idiot would have prolonged nuclear power generation after that, and she is not an idiot.

All this has nothing whatsoever to do with Russia or with German foreign policy, by the way.