MenuOn June 28th, leaders of the G7 announced that they agreed to explore the possibility of imposing a price cap on Russian oil to reduce Moscow’s energy revenues. While many view this as political exigency or a futile return to price controls, the truth is far more complex — with reverberations beyond the war in Ukraine or
Category Archives: Geopolitics
China’s Energy Vulnerabilities Drive Xi’s Policies
The long-anticipated 20th Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, widely seen as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s stage-managed coronation for a third term, began with Xi delivering a two-hour speech focusing on security, further global outreach, and staying the course domestically. None of this surprises China analysts, who predicted these trends far in advance. China’s domestic policy
Needed: Bipartisan support for America’s global leadership
A minority of Congressional Republicans are turning the U.S. response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine into a partisan issue. While demanding a thorough accounting of where U.S. dollars are going in the war effort certainly makes sense, flatly opposing aid to Ukraine is divisive and damaging to U.S. global interests, as U.S. allies are increasingly
Asia’s Hunger For Energy Will Not Save Russia’s Economy
Over the last year, the West imposed sanctions on Moscow, cut back its purchases of Russian hydrocarbons, and sent military support to Ukraine. But the world’s largest democracy, and one of the United States’ biggest allies in Asia, India, hasn’t done any of that. Rather, India has seized the opportunity to purchase cheap Russian energy to
Cyprus presidential elections crucial for regional oil, gas development – opinion
With Russian lobbyists pressuring Europe to cast aside alternatives to Russian gas, such as nuclear energy, we saw a lopsided growth in Russia’s strategic power over Europe. However, it clearly backfired as Putin’s war on Ukraine has continued despite sanctions. Russia lost a huge market in Europe: as much as 150 billion cubic meters of
The Coming Hurricane: Russian Energy-Giant Gazprom Is Creating An Army
Ukrainian intelligence has reported that Russian energy giant Gazprom is establishing its own private military company (PMC). The rationale for an energy company establishing a security force is at least vaguely plausible given the need to defend fixed assets in trouble spots. Western energy companies like Exxon and BP do the same. However, Gazprom is not establishing
China’s Saudi Trip More Than Niceties
China has again taken center stage with a string of groundbreaking events that will define its policy course for years to come – both domestically and internationally. The CCP’s 20th Party Congress bequeathed Xi Jinping a historic third term as President, but extreme economic turmoil and COVID protest have resulted in a chink in his political armor.
How to expel Russia from the UN
The war in Ukraine will have demonstrated the impotence of the United Nations if a permanent member of the Security Council with full veto power becomes a rogue state without consequence. For the havoc it created, Russia must now be evicted from the UN. Read more.
The Greed And Geopolitics Of The OPEC+ Oil Production Cut
This move is not unexpected. As I wrote here, President Joe Biden’s failure in Saudi Arabia in July to secure more oil production shook Saudi Arabia’s transactional relationship (security for oil) with the USA to its foundations. Saudi Arabia began importing Russian fuel oils for domestic use to free up more crude oil for export months ago, with the
Russia’s trajectory of hate: A big war against the West coming
Putin, in his Götterdämmerung moment, is fearmongering. In Stalinist propaganda language, he claims that the West “took off their masks and showed their true nature” … “for centuries [the West] wanted to colonize Russia, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union dreamed, but failed, to shatter it into pieces, set off ethnic groups against each other,