March 2014, Vol. 241 No. 3
Web Exclusive
Energy Underpins Russia-Ukraine Standoff
International tension resulting from Russia’s occupation of Crimea, territory universally recognized as belonging to Ukraine, has many facets, but Russia’s dominance of the energy market in Europe and Ukraine informs the dynamic. Europe got approximately 30% of its natural gas from Russia last year, according to Michael Stoppard, Managing Director, of IHS CERA’s Energy Research Council. Meanwhile, despite the Nordstream and other “bypass pipelines,” 50% of Russia’s gas exports to the west still travel through Ukraine and the troubled country has an outstanding debt to Russia for gas delivered late last year, part of a “penurious state of
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