Tag: natural gas
How Austria became Putin’s Alpine Fortress – POLITICO
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It didn’t occur to the Austrian chamber of commerce that hosting a cozy networking event on the outskirts of Moscow might raise eyebrows in some quarters.
As record cold gripped the Russian capital in January, the local chapter saw an opportunity to pierce the ennui of the snowbound winter with “a sporty Austrian Business Circle in Moscow featuring cross-country skiing in Odintsovo, a park for culture, sport and relaxation.”
On the night watch – POLITICO
It’s an hour before dawn breaks over the North Sea. Aboard the KV Bergen, the officer of the watch is wide awake.
The 93-meter long Norwegian Navy Coast Guard vessel is on patrol, 50 miles out to sea. The sky is dark, the sea darker. But off the starboard bow, bright lights gleam through the rain and mist. Something huge and incongruous is looming out of the water, lit like a Christmas display.
“Troll A,” says Torgeir Standal, 49, the
America Is Ceding the Seas to Its Enemies
Very few Americans—or, for that matter, very few people on the planet—can remember a time when freedom of the seas was in question. But for most of human history, there was no such guarantee. Pirates, predatory states, and the fleets of great powers did as they pleased. The current reality, which dates only to the end of World War II, makes possible the commercial shipping that handles more than 80 percent of all global trade by volume—oil and
Is America Ready for a New Age of Nuclear Power?
“WE WERE A BIT CRAZY”
Kairos Power’s new test facility is on a parched site a few miles south of the Albuquerque, New Mexico, airport. Around it, desert stretches toward hazy mountains on the horizon. The building looks like a factory or a warehouse; nothing about it betrays the moonshot exercise happening within. There, digital readouts count down the minutes, T-minus style, until power begins flowing to a test unit simulating the blistering heat of a new kind of nuclear
Putin’s attack on democracy is working. Just look at Europe. – POLITICO
BERLIN — It was a scene that has played out on city squares across Europe for months: jarring eyewitness accounts of the war in Ukraine, a call to arms against colonial conquest and heartfelt appeals for the public to help.
Yet there was one important difference: The participants at this rally in Berlin late last month weren’t flying the Ukrainian colors, but those of the breakaway Kremlin-backed republics of Luhansk and Donetsk. The target of their dark warnings was not
The Liz Truss Manifesto – POLITICO
LONDON — Liz Truss has not published her plan for government, but this is the closest thing to it.
Over nearly eight long weeks of hustings, interviews, articles and debates, the two contenders for the Tory leadership have made their respective cases for why they should succeed Boris Johnson as U.K. prime minister. Among all the campaign jibes and blue-on-blue attacks have been scores of pledges and promises for how to deal with the urgent problems facing the country.
The
Europe’s last summer before the Russian winter – POLITICO
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Soak up the summer rays while you can — a full-blown Russian winter is heading toward Europe.
Even as fighting continues to rage in Ukraine, the war is already making itself felt across the Continent, in the form of rising food prices, fears of gas shortages and worries about the economy.
And with Russian President Vladimir Putin showing readiness to use food, fuel and fertilizers as weapons of war against Western democracies who
A wonk’s guide to the Czech EU presidency policy agenda – POLITICO
This article is part of POLITICO’s Guide to the Czech EU Presidency special report.
The Czech presidency needs to carry the EU through an energy crisis, galloping inflation and a war in Ukraine — all on a shoestring budget.
Call it the crisis presidency.
In the midst of a war and a gathering economic crisis, the small Central European country will be tasked with making sure the EU secures a lasting supply of energy while not letting go of its
How Germany Inc. played Russian roulette — and lost – POLITICO
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The country’s complicated commercial ties to
Russia involve a lot more than just natural gas.
Illustration by Ricardo Tomás for POLITICO
BERLIN — Until just before the bombs began to fall, it was the most coveted ticket on corporate Germany’s calendar: tea with Vladimir Putin.
The annual gathering — at the president’s Sochi residence or in the Kremlin — offered Germany’s blue-chip CEOs a rare opportunity to speak to the Russian leader, listen
Turkey’s Erdoğan treads a fine line on Russia – POLITICO
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are strange bedfellows — sometimes close strategic partners, but sometimes bitter regional adversaries.
For now, the Turkish leader is casting himself as a middleman, as he visited the Dolmabahçe Palace on the Bosphorus waterfront last week to personally welcome Ukrainian and Russian negotiators gathering for peace talks.
In assuming this role, Erdoğan is treading a delicate tightrope. The relationship between Turkey and