Geopolitics of Russian energy strategy
WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- Recovering Russia's geopolitical relevance has emerged as a key tool for the country's strategic political leverage, analysts say.
"Russia behaves as if it needs energy to secure the political futures of the elite," said Edward Chow, formerly headquarter manager of international external affairs at the Chevron Corp.
Russia state-owned gas giant Gazprom provides a "tremendously juicy opportunity of combining the interests of the political political elite in a petro-state, which Russia has become, with the object of a monopoly to maintain monopoly control," he said.
The comments came at a discussion, "Geopolitics of Eurasian Energy Security," in Washington Tuesday.
With President Vladmir Putin calling for energy to take top priority at the upcoming summit of the Group of Eight G-8nations in July, analysts say this is a soft bargaining tool far different from the hard-headed Russian politics of past decades.
Use of energy policies to reassert power does face fundamental weaknesses according to Richard Giragosian, formerly a U.S. congressional professional staff member of the joint economic committee. Russia will face problems with limited pipeline capacity, has no unutilized oil capacity and is also far from being a truly global player, he said.
"The reality of Eurasian energy strategy is that is it fueling networks of corruption," Giragosian said.
"Russia behaves as if it needs energy to secure the political futures of the elite," said Edward Chow, formerly headquarter manager of international external affairs at the Chevron Corp.
Russia state-owned gas giant Gazprom provides a "tremendously juicy opportunity of combining the interests of the political political elite in a petro-state, which Russia has become, with the object of a monopoly to maintain monopoly control," he said.
The comments came at a discussion, "Geopolitics of Eurasian Energy Security," in Washington Tuesday.
With President Vladmir Putin calling for energy to take top priority at the upcoming summit of the Group of Eight G-8nations in July, analysts say this is a soft bargaining tool far different from the hard-headed Russian politics of past decades.
Use of energy policies to reassert power does face fundamental weaknesses according to Richard Giragosian, formerly a U.S. congressional professional staff member of the joint economic committee. Russia will face problems with limited pipeline capacity, has no unutilized oil capacity and is also far from being a truly global player, he said.
"The reality of Eurasian energy strategy is that is it fueling networks of corruption," Giragosian said.
posted by Marko at 4/18/2006 05:35:00 PM
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