Ukraine's Energy Challenge
OP-ED
Paul Roderick Gregory: EU’s antitrust charge against Gazprom – another Putin disaster
Picture taken on Feb. 18, 2015 shows facilities of Novoprtovskoye oil and gas condensates oilfield of Russian gas and oil giant Gazprom at Cape Kamenny in the Gulf of Ob shore line in the south-east of a peninsular in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.
The Kremlin has tried to characterize the anti-trust investigation as a political witch hunt motivated by its intervention in Ukraine and its threats against the Baltic states and NATO. Indeed, the impending anti-trust charges cannot be devoid of political content because Gazprom has been run, not as a conventional international energy concern, but as an instrument of Kremlin foreign policy. The Kremlin has threatened supply cutoffs to Ukraine and countries reselling backflows to Ukraine, and also warning that Ukraine would siphon off gas - all the while insisting that Gazprom is a reliable supplier.
