Political Pipeline

At Untimely Thoughts, Peter Lavelle has some observations on Gazprom as Russia's foreign ministry:

Gazprom is not just an energy giant: it is Russia's most important foreign policy tool.Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder are slated to sign an agreement significantly increasing the amount of natural gas Germany will eventually purchase from Russia. The existing pipeline delivering gas to the German market is expected to reach full capacity sometime in 2006. As recently as last week, Germany's Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement stated that the energy relationship between the countries was of critical importance and needed to be expanded.

As Lavelle points out, the pipeline issue has many implications for the development of Europe, and he traces the political profile of the deal:

The North European Pipeline project is not without controversy. It was originally mulled years ago and many German politicians have since then expressed concern of being overly dependent on Russian gas exports. The Baltic states and Poland also expressed concerns over the prospective route of the pipeline, designed to bypass both. The Poles and Balts have lobbied German politicians to have the pipeline re-routed for reasons of energy security and transit fees.

The pipeline is also a political issue, with German voters going to the polls to elect a new parliament on September 18. Schroeder's main challenger, Christian Democrat Angela Merkel, leads in the polls and has said that she will support the requests by Poland and the Baltic States to have the new gas pipeline routed across their territory. Depending on the election outcome, the pipeline's route could be changed, though it will probably make little difference to Gazprom, as Germany needs additional gas supplies as soon as possible.

(Via MAK)