They are like the endless tentacles of a gigantic octopus. Buried or placed on the frozen ground of Siberia, sometimes placed directly at the bottom of the sea, these thousands of tubes linked together form the immense network of the Russian energy system. Placed end to end, they would circle the earth more than six times! A tangle of gas and oil pipelines that transport from the depths of Russia to Europe, the energy we need to live, drive, heat ourselves, power our factories…
Simple pipes – whose diameter varies between 50 cm and 1 m – which are nevertheless at the origin of Russian economic and diplomatic power. Before the war in Ukraine, Russia was the world’s largest exporter of natural gas, the second largest exporter of crude oil (the largest, if one includes both exports of crude oil and refined petroleum products), and the third largest coal exporter.
A system that combines common interests
These three energies have contributed, for a long time and massively, to state revenues. Hydrocarbon exports thus represented a little less than half (40%) of its budget revenues. So much so that, for a long time, its budget was calculated based on the export price of oil. “There would be no Russian power without Russian gas, oil and coalestimates Margarita Balmaceda, professor of international relations at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and author of Russian
energy chains. The Remaking of technopolitics from Siberia to
Ukraine to the European union (Columbia University press).
First, because the income earned is very significant. But also because it allows Moscow to engage in a certain type of alliances and interactions with former Soviet countries and those of the European Union. Energy is much more than a weapon for Russia, it has allowed it to
Belgium
