Russia’s Clout in World Energy Market

Whether George Soros or other prominent critics of the Kremlin like it or not, Russia is the world’s largest producer of oil and gas and will remain so for the foreseeable future. In a perfect world, U.S. investors and leaders could afford to spurn investing in companies based on looted assets – but with Hezbollah’s war machine greased by Iranian oil, we are clearly not living in that world. Very soon, when
President Bush is denounced by both conservatives and liberals inside the Beltway for allegedly being too soft on the Kremlin, the increasingly PR-savvy Russians will reply, “Would you Americans rather buy LNG from us, or buy it from Qatar and fund Al-Jazeera?” Would America rather deal with a scowling Mr. Putin, or a smiling Saudi prince?
Yahoo!