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Washington Post: "Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have been so methodical and destructive that administration officials say they are being led by power experts who know exactly which targets will cause the most damage to Ukraine’s power grid.” North American experts on infrastructure warfare believe the Russian strategy is to intensify the pressure on Washington, Warsaw, and Berlin to decide if they are willing to take over the direct war-fighting as the Ukrainian resources are being exhausted – replacing air defences, artillery, electricity supplies and equipment, fuel, troops, and advisors. “There’s a logistical limit for NATO to fight...

Russia's Micex stock index fell 11% on Monday and the ruble hit an all-time low after Vladimir Putin's weekend invasion of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. The sour reaction suggests that investors understand that Mr. Putin's Achilles' heel is the Russian economy and its access to world financial markets, if the West has the wit and will to exploit it. The conventional wisdom in the pundit class is that Russia holds the economic edge because of its natural gas supplies to Ukraine and much of Europe. But that supply is a double-edged sword because Russia needs the foreign-exchange earnings as much as...

Russia's Black Sea Fleet has told Ukrainian forces in Crimea to surrender by 5.am (0300 GMT) on Tuesday or face a military assault, Interfax news agency quoted a source in the Ukrainian Defence Ministry as saying. The ultimatum, Interfax said, was issued by Alexander Vitko, the fleet's commander.

The giant Russian energy company, Gazprom, which controls the world's largest reserves of natural gas, has issued a stark warning to the European Union saying it must decide if it wants to continue receiving supplies of Russian gas.Speaking in an interview for the BBC's Newsnight programme, Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev warned that Europe was now at a crossroads. "Only three countries can be suppliers of pipeline gas in the long-term - Russia, Iran and Qatar. So there is no other choice than to deal with these suppliers," he said. "Europe should decide how to handle this situation… and if...

The Dynegy Corporation has announced the termination of their coal-plant development partnership with LS Power, effectively canceling plans for six new coal burning power plants. Momentum against coal is growing all around the country, as residents of Kingston, Tennessee recover from a one billion gallon spill of toxic coal ash produced by a coal plant last week. That spill promises to leave streams, fish, front yards and drinking water in the community under health advisories for months, if not years. Now, just two days into 2009 the tally of canceled coal plants is already ticking up. The environmental community has...

Vice President Dick Cheney spoke to the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Sunday afternoon. The exchange is reported by the AP as: “The vice president expressed the United States’ solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Cheney’s press secretary, Lee Ann McBride, said. Cheney told Saakashvili “Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community,” McBride said. The key terms here are “Russian aggression” and “must...

The Shadowserver Foundation, which tracks serious hacking, confirmed: "We are now seeing new attacks against .ge sites - www.parliament.ge and president.gov.ge are currently being hit with http floods." Mr Armin warned that official Georgian sites that did appear online may have been hijacked and be displaying bogus content. He said in a post on his site: "Use caution with any web sites that appear of a Georgia official source but are without any recent news ... as these may be fraudulent." The Baltic Business News website reported that Estonia has offered to send a specialist online security team to Georgia....

Q & A: Georgia-South Ossetia Fighting August 08, 2008 RFE/RL's Caucasus expert Liz Fuller answers questions on Russia's interest in South Ossetia and recent events that have caused the conflict to boil over. August 9: Q. What will be the impact of Abkhazia's decision to begin military operations against Georgian troops in the Kodori Gorge? A. I'm not sure whether they're planning to retake the Kodori Gorge, but they've obviously decided that this is the most useful strategic thing they can do to strengthen their own position, and this is something they can do in line with their cooperation agreement...

South Ossetia At Front Of New East-West Conflict? August 09, 2008 By Brian Whitmore A column of Russian troops on the march to Tskhinvali on August 9 In an effort to prod the West to Tbilisi's side in its rapidly escalating armed conflict with Russia, President Mikheil Saakashvili is invoking the ghosts of Cold War battles past -- Moscow's suppression of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan in 1979. The Georgian leader's strategy is clear. Tbilisi's small army is no match for the Russian military machine. Saakashvili's only chance...

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has handed his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, a victory over the "siloviki" in Russia. And if Medvedev is able to take advantage of the fruits of this victory, the consequences will be significant not so much for Tbilisi as for Moscow. So, why is this a victory over the siloviki -- those in the Russian ruling elite with close ties to the state security organs? Because there is no way the regime in South Ossetia can be in any sense called "separatist." Who there is a separatist? The head of the local KGB, Anatoly Baranov, used...

PRAGUE, December 5, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- During the recent NATO summit in Riga, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar urged the alliance to declare that an energy boycott of any member be seen as an act of coercion against all members of the alliance and one that requires a collective response. U.S. Senator Richard Lugar urged NATO to update its charter. "We are used to thinking in terms of conventional warfare between nations, but energy could become the weapon of choice for those who possess it," he said. Lugar warned the opening session of the NATO meeting that "it may seem to...

Beginning in 2003, Iran began demanding oil payment in euros, not dollars, although the oil itself was still priced in U.S. currency. Now, Iran is seriously considering establishing an Iranian Oil Bourse, with the goal of competing with the New York Mercantile Exchange, NYMEX, and London's International Petroleum Exchange, IPE. Right now, the NYMEX and IPE use three oil "markers" to establish price – West Texas Intermediate crude, Norway Brent crude and the UAE Dubai crude. With the establishment of an Iranian Oil Bourse, Tehran wants to create a fourth oil marker, this one priced in the euro. In 2000,...

Will Iran's 'petroeuro' threat lead to war? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 3, 2006 11:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Beginning in 2003, Iran began demanding oil payment in euros, not dollars, although the oil itself was still priced in U.S. currency. Now, Iran is seriously considering establishing an Iranian Oil Bourse, with the goal of competing with the New York Mercantile Exchange, NYMEX, and London's International Petroleum Exchange, IPE. Right now, the NYMEX and IPE use three oil "markers" to establish price – West Texas Intermediate crude, Norway Brent crude and the UAE Dubai crude. With the establishment of an Iranian...

The world has noticed Russia's use of energy as a political weapon to pressure neighboring Western-oriented states. Now it appears that Russia does not intend to confine itself to energy to tame "intractable" neighbors but contemplates a far more conventional and well-tried weapon -- the use of military force. The new Russian national security doctrine outlined by Russia's defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, on your editorial page -- "Russia Must Be Strong," Jan. 11 -- clearly states that Russia's top national security concern is the "internal situation" in some members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Mr. Ivanov justified military force...

MOSCOW -- Occasionally, we all get wrong ideas about ourselves. A middle-aged person starts dressing like Leonardo di Caprio, a pizza deliveryman begins emulating "The Godfather," a school teacher turns herself into a Gestapo interrogator. Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided he was Napoleon. Two centuries ago the French emperor attempted an economic blockade of archenemy England. In January 2006, Putin tried the same on Eastern Europe. Back in the '50s, when the world economy was making the big transition from coal to oil and gas, journalists started referring to natural gas as industry's "blue blood." Assuming the metaphor still...

The war between Russia and Ukraine about natural gas is over, but this is not the end of the drama. Already fires up a bluish light of the new conflict – except this time, the conflict is Ukraine vs. Ukraine. The opposition is serious and determined to prove that Victor Yushchenko, Yuriy Yekhanurov and Co. did not win at all (as is perceived by many), but instead embarrassingly lost [the recent Russia-Ukraine energy conflict]. And consequently, they deserve obstruction, ostracism and a full defeat at the March parliamentary elections. Yesterday’s enemies – Yulia Tymoshenko and Inna Bohoslovska, Natalya Vitrenko and...

Each day’s headlines underscore a central reality of our time: The United States has no choice but to make real progress on energy security — specifically by reducing the exclusive reliance of America’s transportation sector on gasoline and diesel fuels, most of which are derived from oil imported from overseas. Consider a sampler of recent developments in nations from which we obtain such oil: Saudi Arabia: Sunday’s Los Angeles Times gave prominent treatment to expressions of growing frustration by U.S. officials about the lack of Saudi cooperation in countering terrorism. The bottom line is that, while the Saudis may be...

Are we living through the origins of the next world war? Certainly, it is easy to imagine how a future historian might deal with the next phase of events in the Middle East: With every passing year after the turn of the century, the instability of the Gulf region grew. By the beginning of 2006, nearly all the combustible ingredients for a conflict - far bigger in its scale and scope than the wars of 1991 or 2003 - were in place. The first underlying cause of the war was the increase in the region's relative importance as a source...

With every passing year after the turn of the century, the instability of the Gulf region grew. By the beginning of 2006, nearly all the combustible ingredients for a conflict - far bigger in its scale and scope than the wars of 1991 or 2003 - were in place. The first underlying cause of the war was the increase in the region's relative importance as a source of petroleum. On the one hand, the rest of the world's oil reserves were being rapidly exhausted. On the other, the breakneck growth of the Asian economies had caused a huge surge in...

COUNTDOWN TO ENERGY WAR by Jim Willie CB January 13, 2006 The conflict with Iran over their advancing nuclear program has moved gradually toward severe escalation. Iran’s insistence to develop uranium enrichment facilities creates a supply fork. One tine extends legitimately to their electrical generating plants powered by enriched uranium. Another tine extends to a nuclear weapon arsenal, potentially. Russia has assured the West of its primary role to handle spent fuel, the key ingredient for weapon grade material. If the conflict ignites, expect a sudden $10 jump in the crude oil price, maybe even a $30 jump. Iran commands...