Federico Bordonaro

Interesting article written by Thom Shanker in today’s IHT:

As Russia pinches natural-gas supplies bound for Europe, senior American officials acknowledge they have little power to persuade the Kremlin to change course.

But natural-gas shortages this winter may prompt the Europeans to listen more intently to a case Washington has made for years: that relying on Russian hydrocarbons is risky, and that finding alternative supplies would limit Kremlin opportunities for coercion.

“We can’t force Russia to turn the spigot on,” David Merkel, deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs, said in an interview. He said the United States had been “trying to get Europe to focus on this for a long time — that dependency is something they should not be comfortable with, especially if it is dependency on Russia, which is willing to use its energy as a political tool.”

Even though an agreement between Russians and Ukrainians looks nearer today, the question of European energy security still waits to be answered properly…