This in from the Wall Street Journal on the somewhat disturbing, political dimensions of Russia's Nord Stream pipeline.  Approved just last week by Finland and Sweden after ecological concerns were overcome, the project is now ready to get off the ground, or rather under the ground.  For the pipeline will traverse the Baltic Sea floor to Germany, rather than crossing overground through former Eastern bloc countries; a divisive move, Alexandro Peterson suggests:[ . . . ] The Nord Stream project is part of an exclusionary agreement between Moscow and Berlin--nicknamed in circumvented Warsaw the "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact," after the 1939 Soviet-Nazi deal to carve up Poland. It would have been much cheaper to build an overland pipeline ...

Luke Harding has two pieces on Russian climate change in today's Guardian: an audio report on Northern-Siberia's seasonal shifts, and a special report on the Yamal peninsula.  Rumors abound that China, Japan, Russia and France have been in secret talks on using an alternative to the dollar for oil trading, but OPEC's Secretary General says that, even if there were to be a shift, it would be a long process, and that 'tradition' would make it difficult.  Serbian oil monopoly NIS, majority owned by Gazprom Neft, has signed a $100 million loan with Bank of Moscow on the back of Medvedev's Belgrade visit.  Italy, Russia, and Turkey, have signed a joint statement on the construction of the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline linking Turkey's Black Sea coast and Mediterranean coast (the New York Times has a special report today ...

The Financial Times enumerates Gazprom's problems: are its ambitions to increase production any more than pipe dreams?  Competition for energy reserves in the Arctic Circle could prompt friction between Russia and NATO, a new commander at the alliance has warned.  Bloomberg reports that the holder of the world's fourth-largest gas reserves, Turkmenistan, is ready to export natural gas to European collaborators if they build a pipeline across the Caspian Sea to transport the fuel.  According to Oil and Gas Eurasia, Russia needs a total of $310 billion to fully carry out its program for the analysis and exploration of its continental shelf, a deputy natural resources minister has announced.  Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko has said that Russia has been invited as an observer to the December meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.  Finnish environmental ...

Ria-Novosti reports that GDF Suez will, by the end of October, become a shareholder in the company building the Nord Stream gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, Gazprom's deputy CEO has announced.  Norway's StatoilHydro is looking for new exploration possibilities in the Russian Arctic and said the investment climate in Russia is 'acceptable' for new projects.  A joint American-Canadian mission exploring the Arctic has mapped out considerable parts of the continental shelf for the first time.  E.On and Gazprom have put a project to build a power station in Lubmin, in eastern Germany, on ice.  The Financial Times reports that Gazprom has signed a deal with Bglobal, the smart meter and energy data provider, demonstrating its desire to enter into the British energy market.  India is apparently looking to expand its cooperation with Russia in ...

From the Reuters report on Vladimir Putin's surprise visit to Grozny to stump for the increasingly embattled Chechen appointee Ramzan Kadyrov, and lay flowers at the grave of his father, former Chechen leader Akmad Kadyrov.  Also see the comments posted to the government site - which makes me realize that Putin had not set foot in Chechnya since October 2008.Surrounded by heavily armed guards in camouflage and with sub-machineguns at the ready, the two men laid a basket of red and white roses at the tombstone of Kadyrov's father, Akhmad, who was killed in a bomb blast in 2004. "It is thanks to this courageous man that the war ended. He gave his life for Russia and Chechnya," a sombre Putin said, to a ...

On the eve of the recent visit of Vladimir Putin to Helsinki, a presentation of my film about the Nord Stream gas pipeline took place there in the parliament of Finland. The crowd wasn't very large - maybe 30 people.  However among the small audience was one of Nord Stream's top representative in Finland, Sebastian Sass. Young, energetic, and self-assured to the point of cockiness, Sebastian had previously been an assistant to the former Prime Minister of Finland Paavo Lipponen.  Lipponen, as our readers are aware, is the second head of state to leave politics and end up employed (indirectly) by the Russian government.  His duties include serving as the main interlocutor between the pipeline project and the Finnish government, "in order

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It's been an interesting week here in Helsinki, where I have been attending the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum. In addition to showing my short documentary film on the Nord Stream project (which produced a spirited debate), I had the opportunity to speak with the leader of the United Civic Front, the grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who had come to Finland to support his friend for a Europarliament election. I took the opportunity to ask Garry for his thoughts on Russia's ambitious pipeline projects.

- Garry, the future of the gas pipeline along the bottom of the Baltic now depends to a large extent on the Finns and the Swedes. Here in Finland, as in other countries bordering the Baltic Sea, this project is being broadly

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The Russia-Ukraine battle for natural gas played out well last year for these three natural resource stocks, and it’s happening again. J. Christoph Amberger of Today’s Financial News predicted back in November of 2008 that the Ukraine would go into a “deep freeze” and that forecast came to pass at the beginning of this year.

Here he tells us that his recommended stocks have “upward potential” and that “The Eastern European energy crisis is far from over… and I believe we will be served well holding on to these stocks for the long term!” This from Amberger:

Back in November 2008, I went on record predicting an energy stand-off between Russia and Ukraine that would pitch Europe into a deep freeze. (Here’s what I said.) It came to pass on New Year’s Eve, when Russia shut down gas deliveries to Ukraine.

On the surface, this

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We'll have more commentary coming soon on this, but it appears that President Dmitry Medvedev has greeted the historic election of Barack Obama with a telegram of congratulations ("I expect to develop a constructive dialogue with you on the basis of confidence and respect for each other's interests") while simultaneously issuing a direct threat with an announcement that he would deploy Iskander missiles to Russia's Kaliningrad region, which lies between Poland and the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. He also used his state of the nation speech to again blame the United States for the war in the Caucasus and the global financial crisis. As Joe Biden predicted, the new president is immediately being tested even months before inauguration. As we predicted, Russia would be among the first to do it (although Israel also celebrated ...

TODAY: How will US president-elect Barack Obama change relations with Russia? Medvedev delivers state-of-the-nation address, strongly criticizing US; Poland and Lithuania stalling Russia-EU partnership talks; nationalist rally sees 500 protesters detained. US President-elect Barack Obama will inherit a number of international problems - his first decision on dealing with Russia should be one of ‘tone, not actions’. But a deputy Russian foreign minister has expressed optimism on Obama’s election and its potential effects on relations with Russia. Investment bank Renaissance Capital sees Russia becoming ‘less assertive’ internationally as a result of the new leadership. And the Kremlin’s youth group, Nashi, held an anti-US protest at the American embassy in Moscow over the weekend. President Dmitry Medvedev has given his first state-of-the-nation address today, blaming the United States’ ‘conceited’ foreign policy for the ...