Why the Kremlin is Winning the Pipeline War

Guy Chazan of The Wall Street Journal weighs in today with the narrative of Russia's thus-far winning strategy against the U.S. for petro-leverage in Europe. As O and G readers know, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev have not just out-foxed the Bush administration in this important contest for economic and political leverage across Europe. They also have simply worked harder. The result is a huge advantage for Russia's South Stream and Nord Stream natural gas pipelines. As for the West's competing Nabucco pipeline -- to call it stillborn would be charitable.

The piece puts together how the Russians, using no strong-arm tactics but orthodox economic incentives, so far have triumphed. But pipeline junkies may be amused that it entirely omits Turkmenistan, the center of the pipeline race. Azerbaijan -- a bit player in this project -- is wrongly identified as the vortex. In addition, Matt Bryza, the State Department's deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, is inaccurately identified as "a key architect" of Washington's triumphant Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. I like Bryza a lot, and no one in State has stuck to the issues longer. But to be fair to a host of others, in the 1990s he was a junior player.

Book recommendation: I reviewed William J. Bernstein's A Splendid Exchange in Business Week. It's one of those personality-driven works where you can actually get through the sweep of history without much effort, in this case using the prism of world trade.

Photo: Yvonne in Willowick, Ohio

Rights: Creative Commons