Kremlin energy policy in Europe: divide et impera

Recently, a number of international and local analysts hold that Russia has used “more muscle than brain in its foreign policy,” referring mostly to the New Year’s Moscow-Kyiv standoff over fuel pricing—the incident that appears to have seriously dented Russia’s image as a reliable partner. Needless to say, those in the Kremlin would strongly disagree with such an analysis. Muscle was simply missing from Russia’s policies in the past, they argue, and now that it is making itself felt, the West finds it uncomfortable.

The shift that has happened in the Kremlin’s behavior can be described as a transition from mere reaction to the other international actors’ moves to seizing the strategic initiative, suggests Konstantin Kosachev, a prominent foreign-policy commentator and head of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee.

Eurasian Daily