Natural Gas as a Political Weapon?

Abstract

From the outset, Western European and Soviet officials were aware that the gas trade across the iron curtain involved political risks. During the decades that followed, their cooperation survived several major East-West crises without affecting the gas trade. However, Brussels’s intervention in its pursuit of open access to Russia’s energy resources was rejected by Russia. From about 2005 onwards, the European Commission increasingly took it upon itself to control and limit the energy relationship with Gazprom. Meanwhile, Russia’s gas exports to former Soviet republics were complicated by difficulties to pay, followed by Russian demands for political and economic concessions. In Ukraine, the involvement of “oligarchs” as intermediaries at both ends led to interminable additional complications.