As President Vladimir Putin seeks to reinforce Russia’s position as a global power through nuclear saber-rattling and military campaigns in Ukraine and Syria, the next U.S. administration will need to both contain and cooperate with him. If played right, that may get easier in the years to come. The reason: The transformation of the world’s natural gas markets is weakening Moscow’s economic toolkit. And that will make Putin’s pipeline politics — his use of natural resources for foreign policy purposes — obsolete.
OP-ED
Agnia Grigas: How Putin loses grip on Russia’s pipeline politics
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with activists of the All-Russian People's Front in Yalta, Crimea, on Oct. 26, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / SPUTNIK / ALEXEI DRUZHININ
