... (in reference to Simon Pirani's recent work), Central Asia has completely moved towards the Chinese market and we ought to blame the squabbling between the EU and Russia over gas matters, as whilst these were ongoing the gas/oil potential of Central Asia was lured towards China. As we are currently seeing the infrastructure is being reversed away from Europe to Asia, yet again underlining that EU's actions were once again detrimental to its energy security with an additional cost of diminished relations with Russia.
Russia's Uncertain Footing and China's Roar:
As Mitrova highlights, Russia must not be delusional about its own role in the great power's game,...
Euro-Russian relations have strained over the recent years in energy matters as certain vested interests shifted perceptions into the realm of what I would express as logical fallacies – ... ... worry about plagiarism, I hope to share some of the findings and research conducted. In this first post of two-part special, a Europe-Russia focused question and answer session is outlined with Dr. Tatiana Mitrova, whereas in the subsequent second post,...
... Lille (Sciences Po). His research concerns capitalism, religion, ethics, civil economy, European Union and wider Europe like Russia, Ukraine and Turkey. He is an Associate... ... modernisation, on the one hand, and authoritarian consolidation, on the other hand.
Energy Calamity
It is argued by some that the Russo-European relationship has soured... ... preserve Russian’s “sphere of privileged interests” in the Caucasus and Central Asia are palpable. In the South and East of its vast country, Moscow acts more...
... quickly recall my keen interest in the Renaissance's jack of all trades. However, on a serious note, Russia is facing perhaps one of the biggest challenges in the upcoming decade as its economy is overly dependent upon natural wealth, but our main European market is quickly becoming less accessible raising the question: where to go? Aside, long-term diversification from energy export dependence, Russia has a relatively shorter-term option: to expand into Asia, but this option is far from easy and requires tricky manoeuvres.
Personal Note: I should have uploaded this particular post on RIAC from the start to make ...
... From Russia With Love:
Xi Jinping visit to Russia was highly symbolic, as is the case with first foreign visits (See: NTS). Energy was at the forefront of the visit with two different outcomes for the oil and gas talks. The other issue was geopolitics ... ... price was not set, which is obviously a serious concern (See: InterFax Energy). Additionally, Russia was unable to play-off Europe against China, due to the latters pressure. Russia hoped to supply both markets with its European gas fields, thus making ...
... civil war there and the fact that Russia was acting as a peacekeeping force. So its overall military interest is to continuously have a foothold in the region. However, the role of China in the region, the American war in Afghanistan since 2001 and the European Union which has been gaining an interest there since 2006-2007 in an attempt to exploit Central Asia’s need to diversify its energy exports – have impacted upon Russia’s position. Moreover, the E.U. in particular wants access to Turkmen gas and Kazakh oil and gas, as a way to diversify its energy imports and rely less on Russia.
However, the Central Asian states ...