[Mb-civic] The Sheik In the Kremlin - Jim Hoagland - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

The Sheik In the Kremlin

By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, September 18, 2005; Page B07

NEW YORK -- Want to make a former KGB colonel's day? Simple. Climb into 
your SUV and cruise your city. Turn up your home or store air 
conditioner on a warmish day. Or choose another way to waste energy. You 
will bring a smile to Vladimir Putin's face and a bulge to Russia's 
national wallet.

Not directly, of course. But by continuing to live unmeasured lives when 
it comes to energy consumption, too many Americans could unconsciously 
help Putin achieve his strategic objective of making Russia a second 
Saudi Arabia.

That is, the Russian president would translate his country's bountiful 
natural gas and oil reserves into political influence and power abroad. 
In return for "energy security," the United States and Europe would 
presumably leave Putin alone as he tightened political control at home 
and waged a brutal counterinsurgency in Russia's Chechnya province.

The framework for such a strategy -- with the realpolitik details 
discreetly omitted -- was sketched by Putin in Moscow earlier this month 
as he prepared to travel to Germany, the United Nations and then to 
Washington for his meeting with President Bush on Friday. Trading energy 
supplies for wealth and influence was on his mind and on his agenda.

Russia is not unique in wanting to gain influence through its oil and 
gas exports. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, to which 
Russia does not belong, exists for that purpose. But Russia's size, 
history, continuing ambitions and concerns in the Eastern and Central 
European areas it once controlled as the Soviet Union, and its vast 
nuclear arsenal, make it a special case that needs special attention.

So does the timing of its arrival as a global energy superpower. Surging 
demand from China and India, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. 
history, a global war on terrorism centered on the Middle East and 
Central Asia and other events have rocked energy markets and created 
unprecedented fluidity in alignments between producers and consumers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/17/AR2005091701109.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20050918/eafea2bd/attachment.htm