As Winter approaches, many people in Central and Eastern Europe remember the chill caused last winter by Russia's deliberate cut-off of gas supplies. Until the EU establishes a common energy policy and a single market for natural gas, Russia will be tempted to use new blockades to continue the divide-and-rule policy that the world has witnessed since Vladimir Putin came to power.
COPENHAGEN – As winter approaches, many people in Central and Eastern Europe remember the chill caused last winter by Russia’s deliberate cut-off of gas supplies. That shutdown was a harsh reminder that gas is now the Kremlin’s primary political instrument as it seeks to re-establish its privileged sphere of interest in what it thinks of as Russia’s “near-abroad.” If Russia is allowed to continue imposing Moscow rules on Europe’s energy supplies, the result will be costly – not only for Europe, but for Russia as well.
So it is past time that the European Union stopped treating energy as a bilateral issue, with some of the larger member states trying to protect their own narrow interests at the expense of the common European good. The EU urgently needs to build a common energy policy and a single market for natural gas. Until both are established, there is a grave risk that Russia will use new blockades to continue the kind of divide-and-rule policy that the world has witnessed since Vladimir Putin came to power.
The planned Nord Stream gas pipeline on the bottom of the Baltic Sea is a good example of the problems that everyone in Europe is facing. The pipeline has been established as a Russian-German-Dutch consortium, but it is the Russian energy giant Gazprom that is in the driver’s seat with 51% of the shares. Nord Stream will enable Russia to deliver natural gas directly to Germany without using the existing land-based connections.
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When a bank fails in the United States, questions about who is to blame are often directed at many different regulatory agencies, because the system is complex and hard for outsiders to understand. In the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the case for an overhaul could not be stronger.
laments that the post-2008 Dodd-Frank reforms left in place a framework riddled with structural shortcomings.
The failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank are significant market events. But, given an overheated labor market and 1970s-like inflation, if the Fed cannot see the whites of the eyes of a systemic banking crisis, then it must move aggressively on the inflation front.
urges the US central bank to continue raising interest rates, despite signs of financial-sector fragility.
Richard Haass
explains what caused the Ukraine war, urges the West to scrutinize its economic dependence on China, proposes ways to reverse the dangerous deterioration of democracy in America, and more.
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COPENHAGEN – As winter approaches, many people in Central and Eastern Europe remember the chill caused last winter by Russia’s deliberate cut-off of gas supplies. That shutdown was a harsh reminder that gas is now the Kremlin’s primary political instrument as it seeks to re-establish its privileged sphere of interest in what it thinks of as Russia’s “near-abroad.” If Russia is allowed to continue imposing Moscow rules on Europe’s energy supplies, the result will be costly – not only for Europe, but for Russia as well.
So it is past time that the European Union stopped treating energy as a bilateral issue, with some of the larger member states trying to protect their own narrow interests at the expense of the common European good. The EU urgently needs to build a common energy policy and a single market for natural gas. Until both are established, there is a grave risk that Russia will use new blockades to continue the kind of divide-and-rule policy that the world has witnessed since Vladimir Putin came to power.
The planned Nord Stream gas pipeline on the bottom of the Baltic Sea is a good example of the problems that everyone in Europe is facing. The pipeline has been established as a Russian-German-Dutch consortium, but it is the Russian energy giant Gazprom that is in the driver’s seat with 51% of the shares. Nord Stream will enable Russia to deliver natural gas directly to Germany without using the existing land-based connections.
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