Energy Security

Issues in Russia-Turkey Relations After Crimea

On December 4, Major-General Oleksandr Rozmazninov, of Ukraine’s General Staff, reported a Russian deployment of the Iskander-M tactical missile system to Crimea. (Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, December 4). This and other Russian military deployments to the annexed peninsula have prompted debates on the shift in the military balance in the Black Sea region.

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LNG and the Gulf of Finland

Although the crisis in Ukraine has finally made all of Europe acutely aware of the need to diversify natural gas supplies and reduce dependency on Russia, outside of Lithuania there is still little progress towards that direction in the other two Baltic states and Finland. All four countries are, for the moment, still fully dependent on Russia for their natural gas imports. While Lithuania has almost finished its floating LNG terminal in Klaipėda, the long-awaited regional LNG terminal in the Gulf of Finland is no closer to completion than it was before Russian troops entered Crimea.

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Call Putin’s Bluff on Natural Gas

The EU has convinced itself that its dependence on Russian natural gas supplies deprives it of leverage over Russia, thereby limiting its response to Russia’s hybrid warfare against Ukraine. In reality, however, Russia is locked into Europe as the main export market for its natural gas for decades to come.

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