Russia’s use of its vast energy resources for leverage against
post-Soviet states such as Ukraine is widely recognized as a threat. Yet
we cannot understand this danger without also understanding the
opportunity that Russian energy represents. From corruption-related
profits to transportation-fee income to subsidized prices, many within
these states have benefited by participating in Russian energy exports.
To understand Russian energy power in the region, it is necessary to
look at the entire value chain―including production, processing,
transportation, and marketing―and at the full spectrum of domestic and
external actors involved, from Gazprom to regional oligarchs to European
Union regulators.
This book follows Russia’s three largest
fossil-fuel exports―natural gas, oil, and coal―from production in
Siberia through transportation via Ukraine to final use in Germany in
order to understand the tension between energy as threat and as
opportunity. Margarita M. Balmaceda reveals how this dynamic has been a
key driver of political development in post-Soviet states in the period
between independence in 1991 and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
She analyzes how the physical characteristics of different types of
energy, by shaping how they can be transported, distributed, and even
stolen, affect how each is used―not only technically but also
politically. Both a geopolitical travelogue of the journey of three
fossil fuels across continents and an incisive analysis of technology’s
role in fossil-fuel politics and economics, this book offers new ways of
thinking about energy in Eurasia and beyond.
