“… On Tuesday, Russia[‘s] Gazprom … said it had started to refill its European gas storage. … push[ing] down spot prices in the region although analysts said Moscow would have to do more to ease concerns in Europe to lead to a more significant drop in prices. … Gas prices have risen this year because of factors including low gas […]
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Despite Putin’s pledge of increased natural-gas supplies, Moscow is showing little sign of ramping up deliveries to Europe […]
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(Oilprice.com – Tsvetana Paraskova – Nov. 7, 2021) Europe is experiencing the lowest level of gas in storage in a decade just ahead of the winter sent natural gas prices spiking to record highs last month The very tight European gas market may find relief from the supply crunch if it taps part of the so-called cushion gas. Increased Russian […]
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Danish authorities have detained a Russian research vessel north of the Jutland Peninsula in an apparent legal dispute … [reportedly] with a Canadian company […]
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“Benchmark European gas prices jumped 15% … after a major pipeline … from Russia began sending flows eastwards. … Europe relies on Russia for around 35% of its natural gas[,] [t]he bulk … through pipelines including Yamal … through Belarus and Poland to Germany, Nord Stream … to Germany, and pipelines … through Ukraine. … Last year [Russian] gas exports […]
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(Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Eurasia Daily Monitor – Volume 18, Issue 166 – Paul Goble – Nov. 2, 2021) Since Soviet times, Russian analysts have mused about the possibility that Germany might try to recover Kaliningrad, or East Prussia as it was known before Joseph Stalin seized it at the end of World War II. Later, during the 1990s, […]
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With natural-gas prices hitting record highs, Europe’s winter of discontent is only beginning, fueled by misgivings over … energy policies and suspicions over [Russian] intentions …. The 27-member EU gets more than 40 percent of its gas imports from Russia [….]
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“… Nord Stream 2 may need a few more months to clear remaining red tape … to help ease Europe’s energy crunch. The Baltic Sea project … has raised concerns over the Kremlin’s control of [European] energy supplies … [It] is complete [but is] … awaiting certification from national and [EU] authorities. … Putin has pledged to step up gas […]
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“… Russia has bristled at … U.S. and other NATO ships … [T]ensions between Moscow and the West have sunk to post-Cold War lows after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, … [the] insurgency in eastern Ukraine and other irritants. … Russia suspended its [NATO] mission … and ordered the closure of [NATO’s] office in Moscow after NATO … […]
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“The Russian president told the state energy giant to pump more fuel to Germany and Austria to ease a supply crunch.” “… European gas prices are more than five times as high as they were a year ago even after Thursday’s slide, hurting consumers and holding back economies’ post-pandemic recoveries. The continent’s stores of gas [reportedly] are 15% below the […]
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A senior U.S. state department official has warned Europe against bowing to Russian pressure and waiving the lengthy process needed to approve Nord Stream 2, a controversial Baltic Sea natural gas pipeline to Germany […]
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(Oilprice.com – Irina Slav – Oct. 19, 2021) Gazprom has not booked any extra space on pipelines going through Ukraine after an auction held on Monday Gazprom data shows that exports for the first half of October were lower than those for the first half of September Europe’s gas woes don’t seem to be top of the priority list for […]
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Moscow will withdraw its diplomats and close the alliance’s Russian office following NATO’s expulsion of Russian officials as spies […]
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The Russian gas giant has booked only minimal capacity on pipelines to Europe for November […]
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Moscow’s huge oil and gas reserves have given it more influence over Western and Chinese economies grappling with rising prices […]
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Russia has been criticized for exacerbating the gas crisis by withholding some supply – whether to put pressure on the EU to allow Nord Stream 2’s launch, or simply to drive up prices […]
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“Europe is currently in the grip of an unfolding energy crisis that is sparking questions over the role of … Putin’s Russia in exploiting rising demand, low supply, and geopolitical unpredictability. … Natural gas prices have soared by 600% …. [M]arket volatility is hitting key economic areas across Europe, from fertilizer plants to the food industry and health sector. The […]
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(Oilprice.com – Haley Zaremba – Oct. 11, 2021) The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is playing a growing role in Russia’s energy influence in Europe. As the European energy crunch has intensified, Russia has not increased its supply to meet the region’s demand, in a move that many experts have interpreted as a form of “energy blackmail.” Increasing reliance on Moscow […]
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[T]he Biden administration’s decision to waive sanctions against NS2 notwithstanding, there are enough reasons to conclude that the NS2 pipeline will not become operational until the end of 2021 […]
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Subject: RUSSIA, Gas, WTO and other calamities Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2021 From: Andrei Liakhov <gaffriloff@yahoo.co.uk> RUSSIA, Gas, WTO and other calamities By Andrei Liakhov This is the view of the prequel to the brewing problems in the European gas markets of someone who was a part of most of the events set out below or read the underlying documents […]
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“The big bounce in Russian gas production in 2021 has proven to be insufficient to meet the simultaneous spikes in demand at home and abroad. Russian gas output has risen robustly and has been close to its maximum productive capacities but the necessity to fill the depleted domestic gas storage facilities in Q3 2021 limited the availability of Russian gas […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Aleksandra Srdanovic – Sept. 21, 2021) Aleksandra Srdanovic is a graduate student at Harvard University and a student associate with Russia Matters. The Levada Center recently polled Russians on their attitudes toward Russia’s general standing in the international community, as well as their attitudes toward strategic competitors and countries within the post-Soviet neighborhood. Polling shows […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Sept. 20, 2021) “If present trends continue,” Edvard Chesnokov says, “the next generation of Russian rulers will be even more anti-Western than the present one,” the result of the West’s double standards when it comes to Russia and recognition by Russia’s rulers that they must stand up to such pressure. The Komsomolskaya […]
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The Kremlin says spiraling gas prices demonstrate the importance of Nord Stream 2, long-term contracts with Russia’s Gazprom […]
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A majority of Russians believe that their country is isolated on the world stage, according to an independent poll […]
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The EU and United States have opposed controversial Nord Stream 2, concerned about Russia using gas as a political tool […]
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Europe resents Russian gas for the influence it gives a country that the EU considers unfriendly, …, but … is increasingly thirsty for gas because … [last year’s] winter… drained its reserves. … [and] summer … LNG cargoes [got] diverted from Europe to Asia […]
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It is now time for Russia to hold exercises in its western regions again, and we hear warnings that Moscow will use it as cover for the start of aggression against another country […]
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Natural gas prices are way up; reserves are way down; winter is around the corner; and energy traders, policy watchers, and regional experts are getting nervous […]
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“Afghanistan withdrawal heightens Zelensky’s fears of dwindling support from Washington” “… Ukraine has fought an eight-year war against Russia and Russian-backed militants …. Yet even before the chaotic pullout from Kabul, alarm was spreading … over fears … [that] Biden wanted to focus more on other foreign policy issues, especially … China. The first warning sign … came … when […]
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“… six key elements of Russia’s stated grand strategy … [given] closer examination [included]: the linkage between internal and external threats, the nature of Russia’s role in its immediate neighborhood, concepts about the future of warfare, expeditionary requirements for Russia’s military, Moscow’s objectives vis-à-vis the West, and Russia’s declared prioritization of engagement with non-Western powers. …” Embedded version follows below, […]
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“Europe’s border tax and China’s carbon-neutral ambitions might just force a fossil fuel giant to face climate facts.” “… Sooner than expected, Putin’s hydrocarbon-dependent regime has found itself watching key markets slip away as China targets net-zero emissions and Europe introduces measures including a levy on heavy industry imports that fail to meet its climate protection standards. Having lauded the […]
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The European Union, Russia’s largest trading partner, recently proposed a major new carbon tax that could cost Russia’s economy hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars […]
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“The U.S. and Germany reached a bilateral agreement on Nord Stream 2 on July 21 that will allow the pipeline to be completed without further U.S. sanctions. Nord Stream 2 will pump 55bn cubic metres per year of Russian gas to Germany when it reaches full capacity. … politically controversial as Russia wants … to divert as much gas … […]
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“The U.S. and Germany have reached an agreement allowing completion of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, officials from both countries say.” “…. The Biden administration [reportedly] will effectively waive Washington’s longstanding opposition to … Nord Stream 2 … ending years of speculation over … the project, which has come to dominate European energy-sector forecasts. Germany … [reportedly] will […]
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The elections marked a historic victory for the pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), for the first time in Moldova’s post-Soviet history giving a single center-right party a solid majority in the 101-seat legislature […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Philip Stephens – July 7, 2021) Philip Stephens is Associate Editor at the Financial Times. U.S. President Joe Biden’s summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin might have been an opportunity for the European Union to reframe its relationship with its belligerent neighbor. Instead, the thaw between Washington and Moscow has surfaced deep divisions among […]
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The United States has opposed the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea that will bring Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing land routes through Ukraine […]
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Warming in the Arctic is opening a shipping passage through Russia’s northern waters that could put the country at the center of new Asia-to-Europe trade routes […]
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“Better western relations are high on the wishlist at annual St. Petersburg forum, the country’s answer to Davos.” “… Biden and Putin will meet in Geneva … June 16 … at a summit pitched at ‘normalising’ relations between the west and Moscow. Ties have steadily eroded … the past seven years because of allegations of Russian election meddling, tit-for-tat sanctions […]
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Putin’s aggressively anti-Western posture is helping the West to recover its lost self-discipline and unity […]
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… And so, more than two decades after NATO’s original 16-member Cold War composition was first enlarged to take in three former Warsaw Pact states, and with Putin poised to potentially stay in office into the 2030s, the past is very much present […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 19, 2021) Russia is one step closer to bringing home its second ever Eurovision song contest trophy after Tajik-born singer-songwriter Manizha Sangin qualified for the finals late Tuesday. Manizha’s feminist anthem “Russian Woman” was among the 10 semi-final qualifiers, which also included Ukrainian folk-dance act Go_A, who have secured their place in this weekend’s […]
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“Friction in other parts of the globe as well as climate change are fueling tensions in the high north.” “… [N]ew or updated [arctic] strategies … have appeared … from Canada, China, the EU, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the UK[,] [as well as] the U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Department of Defense, Department for Homeland Security, […]
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“… As Russia’s chief decision maker, Putin’s personal moods obviously matter. However, more important is the logic of the Russian system of power, with its demand for … great power status. According to this logic, Russia cannot be ignored and must be a member of the global concert of powers. It believes macho bullying is the entry ticket …. Despite […]
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“This report deconstructs 16 of the most prevalent myths and misconceptions … shap[ing] … Western thinking on Russia. … explain[ing] their detrimental impact on … policy …. Western positions need critical re-examination to ensure more rational and effective responses to Russian actions. … [C]ontrary to wishful thinking … there is little prospect of Russia becoming a more constructive and cooperative […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Juliette Faure – May 12, 2021) Juliette Faure is PhD candidate in political science at Sciences Po Paris. She is currently a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. In 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron put forward the idea of engaging a strategic dialogue with Russia as a necessary step to […]
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