From European to Eurasian energy security: Russia needs and energy Perestroika

• Main Author: Pavel K. Baev
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2012-07-01
• Series: Journal of Eurasian Studies
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879366512000097

Political attention in Europe and the US to the problem of energy security has significantly diminished, and there is more to this shift that just the impact of financial crisis in the EU and the effect of the ‘shale gas revolution’. In the middle of the past decade, some fundamental decisions were made in the European Commission regarding the liberalization and diversification of the energy supplies, but the economic underpinning of these decisions has vastly changed. The whole set of energy directive is now pointing in the wrong direction, but rethinking of past mistakes is lagging, so the energy policy is left in its bureaucratic ‘box’. Russia is set to remain locked in the European gas market but is very slow in adapting to the changes in it. Both Russia and the EU remain in denial that the time for their energy-geopolitical games is over as the nexus of energy flows is fast shifting to Asia-Pacific.