The Nord Stream pipeline is back in the news this week, and unfortunately it’s not main stream press reviews of Grigory Pasko’s documentary.  The Financial Times was carrying a three-frame photo in its special Russia business pull-out section of Vladimir Putin walking by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder at an energy summit giving him a high five, while the Andrew Kramer at the New York Times had the longer investigative piece, which is attracting a lot of attention.  One little detail I noticed in the Kramer piece:

But officials in Central and Eastern Europe fear that while profits
from the pipeline, a joint venture between Gazprom and a trio of German
and Dutch companies, will flow to Russian suppliers and German
utilities, the long trod-upon countries once under the Soviet umbrella will become more vulnerable to energy blackmail.

Such
tactics are hardly without precedent. A Swedish Defense
Ministry-affiliated research organization has identified 55 politically
linked disruptions in the energy supply of Eastern Europe since the
breakup of the Soviet Union.

Does somebody have this report citing 55 cases of energy blackmail or politically influenced supply interruptions?  I feel tremendously remiss in not having this posted on this blog…  Perhaps the Swedes published this right when me and my pal Guy were taking off from Baikonur for a little tour, so I may have missed it.

Last 5 posts by Robert Amsterdam

• Practicing Legal Nihilism - November 24th, 2009
• Energy Blast - Nov 24, 2009 - November 24th, 2009
• Today in Russian Business - Nov 24, 2009 - November 24th, 2009
• RA's Daily Russian News Blast - Nov 24, 2009 - November 24th, 2009
• Russia's China Envy - November 23rd, 2009