Blast from the past re: Russia and Europe

I should probably have a better recollection of the things that I’ve put up on the blog, but I’ve got to be honest with you: considering my memory, unless I wrote it in the last week, I’ve probably forgotten. (Note to parents and Dr. hab. Zdzislaw Mach: this does not include my graduate thesis.) So in my recent efforts to revive the blog, I’ve been glancing through some of my old writing. This afternoon I came across this, from way back in April 2007.  It seems topical in light of recent consternation over the impact of the Georgian war on Russia’s place in the international system. An excerpt after the jump.

Russia as a European state?

Nikolas Gvodsev has some interesting comments on his blog at The National Interest after returning from a European energy security conference in Berlin. The Russian-Polish-German relationship is a very significant one when it comes to energy issues in the EU, as Germany has shown a tendency to negotiate a sort of separate peace with Moscow on supply. This means that we’ve got pipelines bypassing Poland and other central European states, forcing the Poles to either purchase from alternate suppliers or suck it up on the German markup of Russian gas.

Here’s what Gvodsev has to say about the overall dynamics of this three-way relationship:

Open skies, globalization, and markets

EU ministers agreed Thursday to allow European airlines to operate transatlantic flights to the US out of British airports for the first time. Analysts expect that airfares are going to take a precipitous dive as a result, which is great for consumers. Obviously the British were less than enthusiastic about the deal, threatening competition in an area where there was previously none, but hey – that’s capitalism. They did secure one concession, however, requiring that American airports be opened to European carriers within the next two years. Again, more good for American consumers.