In the configuration of Central Asia, China, Russia energy, China is increasing its geo-economic Influence but Russia remains the main military-strategic power.
Continue reading →Two unrelated announcements this week give the unhappy impression of Russian sanctions busting by German energy companies. The European Union decided last month to extend the sanctions against Russia that were set to expire at the end of July. Such … Continue reading →
The EU’s Eastern Partnership Ukraine policy fails to recognize the fact of a conflict situation in Ukraine. This failure exacerbates the deleterious results of the EU’s failure to define its goals there, as well as with respect to the Eastern … Continue reading →
Oral presentation of the paper, “How the EU’s Learning Deficits Created Eastern Partnership Failure: A Complex-Systems Explanation of Political Failure,” to the Conference Security in the European Union and its Neighbourhood: Challenges and Policy Responses, University of Dundee, 15-16 June … Continue reading →
Russia began Turkish Stream construction this month without even a sales contract in place for Turkey to accept the gas. The European Union is unsympathetic to Turkish Stream, which is Russia’s last-minute replacement for the cancelled South Stream project that … Continue reading →
It is in serious trouble, but is the Russian economy unsustainable? Western sanctions have restricted Russian companies’ access to international financial markets, but it is the state’s policies and priorities that are tanking its economic performance. Recent statistical releases show … Continue reading →
Russia is gambling big with its Turkish Stream problem. Gazprom is preparing to begin work on the Turkish Stream pipeline without there being an Russian-Turkish intergovernmental agreement in place. The Japanese firm Saipem, which Russia has been paying for months … Continue reading →
A recent evaluation of prospects for a revival of the Nabucco West pipeline concludes that it is not feasible in the absence of a Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCGP) carrying gas from Turkmenistan, presumably crossing Asia Minor through TANAP. To this … Continue reading →
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 →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 →