Russia's gas weapon

According to a BBC report, work has begun on a gas pipeline between Germany and Russia via the Baltic Sea.

The link will deliver Russian gas to Germany - and eventually to other Western European nations - by 2010.

But the 1,200km (744 mile) pipeline is not without controversy.

It is set to bypass Poland and Ukraine, prompting concern from both countries that they will be cut off from Russian gas supplies.

European nations are justified in worrying about their energy supplies. Russia is gaining control of the supply.

Russia is one of Western Europe's biggest suppliers of commodities and supplies a quarter of the region's gas needs.

With limited natural resources of its own, Germany's dependency is even greater and Europe's biggest economy relies on Russia for a third of all its oil and gas imports.

I mentioned this pipeline in a post in October, and in that post I linked to an Orlando Sentinel article (no longer available, apparently) which said:

Already, 50 percent of the oil burned in Europe and 30 percent of the natural gas comes from Russia. The natural gas percentage is likely to rise dramatically with the new northern pipeline, under the Baltic Sea, extending all the way to Britain. Some countries, such as Germany, are likely to become entirely dependent on Russia for gas. They will also be dependent on Russia for some of their electricity because most new electric generation that has been installed relies on gas turbines.

The effect of Russia's energy dominance of Europe is a massive geopolitical change, binding Europe to Russia at the expense of its old alliances.

Russia will have no small amount of political influence over countries like Germany if it controls large portions of their energy supplies. In a crisis, Russia could use that to its advantage.

As mentioned in my previous post, Russia is facing some disturbing population trends. If Russia becomes more unstable, European nations will become more than a little nervous about having its energy sources in the hands of a supplier where chances of disruption in supply can grow increasingly likely.