Circumventing Russia

Deng Coy Miel, Singapore Spero News reprinted the following article from Radio Free Europe:

Energy: Looking for ways to circumvent Russia Diplomat: Agreement would support Europe’s stated aim of diversifying its energy imports — and help Azerbaijan emerge as a viable alternative to Russia’s natural gas giant, Gazprom Three meetings. Three cities. One goal: making Europe less dependent on Russian energy. On March 22, Azerbaijan’s foreign minister was in Washington, Georgia’s prime minister was in Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat, and a major energy conference opened in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. Topping the agenda in all three cities were plans to develop alternative oil and gas transport routes that circumvent Russia and loosen Moscow’s stranglehold on Europe’s energy supplies. This diplomatic flurry came just one week after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a deal with Greece and Bulgaria to build a pipeline to transport Russian oil from the Black Sea to the Aegean en route to European markets. Federico Bordonaro, a Rome-based energy analyst, says today’s scramble for control of energy transit routes is beginning to resemble the Cold War struggle between Russia and the West. “What we were used to during the Cold War years was a kind of security dilemma,” Bordonaro said. “Powers needed to choose between alliances and between different security strategies. Something very similar is apparently going on in the field of energy security.”

Complete article here.