... энергетической самостоятельности
The outgoing year 2015 has shown that the model of “economic independence” proposed by the Baltics cannot, after all, set an example for the rest of Europe. These countries’ energy strategy remains extremely costly because it is overly politicised.
Energy self-sufficiency is an illusion
The energy strategy of the Baltic countries is underpinned by a single political imperative: to eliminate the “Baltic island” ...
... carbon markets based on the trade of emission permits among countries provided for flexibility in meeting national emission reduction commitments. Russia for instance took advantage of the Joint Implementation scheme which provided investments into energy efficiency, renewables and other low-carbon options. In a new agreement, market mechanisms prove to be difficult to define due to the bottom-up nature of mitigation, complexity and simply political differences in country positions. This is not ...
Although Russia signed an enormous energy agreement with China last year, evidencing growing ties between Russia and the east, there remains in Russia’s policies an underlying pull towards Europe. After canceling the South Stream pipeline project, in response to strong EU and U.S....
In the early 2000s, advancements in Russia-China energy collaboration were slow. Russia sought to maintain its standing as a dominant energy provider in European markets, while China searched for greater energy security among its energy suppliers. China consistently showed an interest in a cross-border ...
... EU’s more significant economic players are using a double standard—strong rhetoric against Russia in the security sphere contrasts with support for domestic companies to secure advantageous positions on the Russian market.
To this end, energy companies, including BP and Shell, have received consent from the British and Dutch governments to pursue joint ventures with Russian energy firms despite London’s strong support for sanctions against Moscow.
BP has already used this to ...
... Islamist ideas. The countries in the other camp, consisting of NATO member states, in particular Turkey, accused Bashar al-Assad of mass killings of civilians and the use of chemical weapons and demanded his complete exclusion from the negotiation process.
Energy, tourism and construction will be the key areas of bilateral cooperation.
In 2014, the crisis in Ukraine was added to the list of unresolved regional conflicts. Different interpretations of the legitimacy of Crimea’s accession to Russia as ...
Diversification at any cost is still perceived as a ‘silver bullet’ for Ukraine’s energy security. The country’s dependence on Gazprom is seen as the key challenge for ensuring the country’s national security. However, inefficiency, mismanagement, the selective application of reform packages, and war in its eastern regions ...
The European Union summit held on March 19-20, 2015, solemnly declared “the need to build the Energy Union.” Has the dream expressed a few years ago by legendary former European Commission President Jacques Delors come true? Have the Europeans managed to shape a new strategy for dealing with large-scale modern challenges in the energy sector?...
... lowering the export tax was an obliged choice in order to avoid that russian companies export through Belarus and Kazakhistan, where duties are cheaper, once the Custom Union is completed.
In 2008, after a similar crisis, some research papers by the Energy Ministry and by the entourage of Igor Sechin (who at the time was serving as Vice-Prime Minister for energy), had showed that the russian output would have slowed and decreased because of the unprofitability of new projects if the tax system had ...
... redirecting the pipeline through Turkey rather than Bulgaria does not strengthen Russia’s position on the European gas market from a strategic point of view. Rather, abandoning the South Stream project should be a good reason to start a new chapter in energy cooperation between Europe and Russia.
The decision on South Stream can easily be viewed as a reaction to Western sanctions. For years, Brussels has been pursuing an active policy against Russian plans to build a southern link of its gas infrastructure ...
