Russia continues to play hardball with natural gas for the European Union, trying to get Brussels to sacrifice Ukraine in return for the promise of better relations with Moscow. This geo-economic and power-political jousting is conditioned by the fact that EU sanctions against Russia will begin to expire in three phases between March and July unless there is an EU consensus to keep them in place.
Continue reading →Interview on John Batchelor Show, WABC-AM 770 (New York City), 23 December 2014. … Continue reading →
U.S. President Barack Obama’s appearance on The Colbert Report this week confirmed that he has no qualms about leaving Canada in the lurch in current global energy glut. In the interview, Colbert observed that the Republican-controlled Congress would approve the … Continue reading →
Interview on John Batchelor Show, WABC-AM 770 (New York City), 10 December 2014. … Continue reading →
As if another nail in the coffin is needed, the Financial Times reports that “Italy’s Renzi pivots to Africa for alternatives to Russian gas” while Putin was signing a meaningless MoU with Erdogan that the latter then said had no signficance. The … Continue reading →
There has lately been much debate about Quebec’s surplus electrical energy production and what to do about it. As Peter Hadekel noted recently in the Gazette (“Energy Shift” Sept. 15), at least one energy-policy expert has suggested that electricity rates … Continue reading →
The major news out of China this week has surely been Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two-day visit to Shanghai, which concluded with Wednesday’s agreement whereby Russia will supply China with Siberian gas for 30 years. The Ukraine crisis has something … Continue reading →
High-level meetings between Asian partners for Canada’s energy resources have continued with the reception of the latter’s Governor General David Johnston by the formers Premier Li Keqiang. Johnston has a ceremonial role in the Canadian political system, so the meeting … Continue reading →
The fate of Ukraine’s gas transportation system is a bellwether for the political fate of Ukraine in the first half of the present century and beyond.
Continue reading →Economic Papers 2. Washington, D.C.: George Washington University, Elliott School, Central Asia Program, September 2012. Kazakhstan’s policy of ‘resource nationalism’ scored another win in early 2012 when the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), which is managing the development of the … Continue reading →