Russia

Putin wields gas as a weapon. But the reality is that Russia can barely meet its own growing demand.

Gazprom, the Russian natural-gas giant, is often portrayed as the 1,000-pound gorilla of the energy world. Over the past few years, the company has had huge success in locking in lucrative European markets. It has also been ruthless about making consumers in the former Soviet Union pay something close to world prices for their gas


Russian control of a quarter of Europe’s gas supplies is a key plank of its foreign policy and renewed national pride; supply of cheap electricity and heat to Russian homes is a touchstone of the Russian government’s credibility. Central Asia is now undermining both those fundamentals