Out of habit from when energy was cheap

If you ever visit countries like Ukraine, Moldova or Georgia during the winter months, try to avoid spending much time in government buildings. They are sweltering. Ask that the temperature be turned down and your host will immediately oblige — by opening the window. Thermostats are nonexistent.

Once I asked an official why the buildings are overheated and why so much energy is wasted. Professor Igor Burakovsky, director of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting in Kiev, rolled his eyes. “We became used to cheap energy,” he said. “Times are changing as Russia charges more for its gas. We need to introduce reforms to save energy and modernize the sector’s infrastructure.”
Reform, however slowly, is on the way, thanks, ironically, to Gazprom, Russia’s giant state-owned energy monopoly. After all, this is the company identified with the Kremlin, which, under President Vladimir Putin, has used energy as one of its main political instruments to increase the power of the new Russia. During a speech marking the 10th anniversary of Gazprom in 2003, Putin said that Gazprom was a strategically important company. “Gazprom,” he said, “is a powerful and economic lever of influence over the rest of the world.”

Dmitri Medvedev, the Kremlin’s No.2, is also chairman of Gazprom, which shows the symbiotic relationship between the two most important centers of economic and political power in Russia today.

The Kremlin’s energy policies, however, are forcing some countries to introduce reforms, diversify their energy imports and even shift their foreign policy toward Europe, according to Russian experts. “The Kremlin’s attempts to use its energy power as political pressure on its neighbors is actually slowly encouraging some reforms,” says Grzegorz Gromadzki of the Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw.

International Herald Tribune