A MILD winter and robust European Union policy have blunted the edge of what was once Vladimir Putin’s most effective foreign-policy weapon: the politicised export of gas. Contrary to some expectations, Russian gas has been flowing to Europe across all four main export pipelines this winter, while the Kremlin’s flagship new pipeline project, South Stream, has come to a mysterious and embarrassing end. Now the focus is on the EU to see if it will push ahead with the prosecution of Gazprom, Russia’s main gas exporter, for years of anti-competitive practices. Why has Russia lost its hold on European gas?
Russia's War Against Ukraine
The Economist: Why Europe no longer fears the Russian gasman
The Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov (L) looks to his counterpart from Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin prior to a meeting with German and French counterparts on the situation in Ukraine in Berlin, Germany, on January 12, 2015. AFP PHOTO / POOL / MICHAEL SOHN
