Free Republic

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree installing a new operator for a massive international oil-and-gas project in Russia's Far East, affecting billions of investment dollars from major U.S., Japanese, and Indian companies. The maneuver and decree on October 7 appear to repeat a strategy that the Kremlin has used recently to seize other foreign-owned energy assets. Putin ordered that authority be given to the Russian government to decide whether foreign stakeholders in the massive Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project may retain their holdings in the joint venture. The move toward nationalization further complicates U.S. Exxon Mobil's efforts to...