This timely book analyses the status of hydrocarbon energy in Russia as both a saleable commodity and as a source of societal and political power. Through empirical studies in domestic and foreign policy contexts, Veli-Pekka Tykkynen explores the development of a hydrocarbon culture in Russia and the impact this has on its politics, identity and approach to climate change and renewable energy.
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.
The world’s largest exporter of oil is facing mounting problems that could send shock waves through every major economy. Gustafson provides an authoritative account of the Russian oil industry from the last years of communism to its uncertain future. The stakes extend beyond global energy security to include the threat of a destabilized Russia.
This book applies a systems and risk perspective on international energy relations, author Per Högselius investigates how and why governments, businesses, engineers and other actors sought to promote – and oppose– the establishment of an extensive East-West natural gas regime that seemed to overthrow the fundamental logic of the Cold War.
This book explores the timely topic of energy security and international relations between the European Union and the Russian Federation. Pursuing a constructivist-discursive approach, it empirically analyses a corpus of energy discourses involving policymakers and representatives of the EU and the Russian Federation. Exploring various discursive meanings assigned to the material and technical character of EU-Russian energy relations, the monograph underscores how the identities and interests of both parties are strongly affected by the norms and values which frame the individual energy discourses.
'Russia is an increasingly important player in global energy markets, yet its policies are under-researched and little understood. This collection represents an important and sophisticated contribution to the debate. While much of the commentary on Russian energy consists of generalizations about Russia's political strategy, this work lifts the lid and looks inside the process through which Russian energy policies are designed and implemented. It brings together essays by top specialists in the field, and makes a conscious effort to integrate the various disciplines of politics, economics and geography by developing a model of the "cognitive frames" through which the policy process is shaped. It addresses both domestic and international dimensions of the problem, and gives equal weight to traditional customers in Europe and new markets in Asia.' Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University, US 'The book explains Russian energy policies, instead of a policy. It portrays a picture with multiple policy drivers, including institutional, regional and federal, environmental and commercial. The study markedly improves our understanding of the multifaceted nature of Russian energy policy, a topical and complex issue. This is a highly commendable book that should be included in the reading lists of anyone with an interest in the role of energy in Russia's political economy or energy matters more generally.' Kim Talus, University College London, Australia Russia's vast energy reserves, and its policies towards them have enormous importance in the current geopolitical landscape. This important book examines Russia's energy policies on the national, interregional and global level. It pays particular attention to energy policy actors ranging from state, federal and regional actors, to energy companies and international financial actors and organizations. The book models the formation of Russia's energy policies in terms of how energy policy actors perceive and map their policy environment. The case studies cover federal, regional and environmental aspects of Russian energy policy, Russia's energy relations with Europe and the CIS, North East Asia, the globalization of Russian oil companies and the political economy of Russian energy. It is found that there are several concurrent energy policies in contemporary Russia, and that this situation is likely to continue. These policies are conducted primarily from the business frame perspective while notions of energy superpower Russia are found more ambiguous. Russia's Energy Policies will benefit advanced master's level students, doctoral students, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners. The book will be a great resource for advanced international relations, political economy, international business and globalisation courses alongside energy policy courses, as well as area studies courses on Russian, post-Soviet and European politics and environmental politics.
The challenges in Russia’s energy sector are changing. On the demand side, Europe is seeking to limit its dependence on Russian oil and gas, with the result that China and other Asian countries are likely to eventually become growing export markets for Russian energy. On the supply side, oil and gas fields in West Siberia are diminishing and in future Russia’s energy will have to come more from East Siberia and the Arctic, which will necessitate new infrastructure development and the employment of advanced technologies, which may increase Russia’s dependence on commercial partners from outside Russia. This book explores the challenges facing Russia’s energy sector and the resulting security implications. It includes a discussion of how far the Russian state is likely to continue to monopolise the energy sector, and how far competition from private and foreign companies might be allowed.
Russia is among the world’s leading oil producers, sitting atop the planet’s eighth largest reserves. Like other oil-producing nations, it has been profoundly transformed by the oil industry. In The Depths of Russia, Douglas Rogers offers a nuanced and multifaceted analysis of oil’s place in Soviet and Russian life, based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research in the Perm region of the Urals. Moving beyond models of oil calibrated to capitalist centers and postcolonial "petrostates," Rogers traces the distinctive contours of the socialist—and then postsocialist—oil complex, showing how oil has figured in the making and remaking of space and time, state and corporation, exchange and money, and past and present. He pays special attention to the material properties and transformations of oil (from depth in subsoil deposits to toxicity in refining) and to the ways oil has echoed through a range of cultural registers. The Depths of Russia challenges the common focus on high politics and Kremlin intrigue by considering the role of oil in barter exchanges and surrogate currencies, industry-sponsored social and cultural development initiatives, and the city of Perm’s campaign to become a European Capital of Culture. Rogers also situates Soviet and post-Soviet oil in global contexts, showing that many of the forms of state and corporate power that emerged in Russia after socialism are not outliers but very much part of a global family of state-corporate alliances gathered at the intersection of corporate social responsibility, cultural sponsorship, and the energy and extractive industries.
Since the 1990s, Baltic-Russian relations have been amongst the most contentious on the European continent. Energy security concerns, historical legacies, and the status of Russian minorities have all proved key flash points. Baltic-Russian relations have been described as a 'litmus test' of Russia's willingness to leave behind its imperialist ambitions; simultaneously the policies of Tallinn, Riga or Vilnius towards Russia can have a direct impact on EU-Russian and NATO-Russian relations. The Baltic states share similar histories and resources, and face the same geopolitical challenges. All are dependent on Russia for energy yet, as this fascinating study reveals, they have pursued very different foreign policies towards their powerful neighbour. In The Politics of Energy and Memory between the Baltic States and Russia Agnia Grigas provides an unprecedented analysis of contemporary Baltic-Russian relations and identifies the causal factors that drive the foreign policies of the Baltic states in such divergent routes. Supported by case studies on the oil and gas sectors as well as the tug of history, this book is an invaluable resource for scholars and policy makers.
