THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 111, April 27, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
FROM THE SOVIET UNION TO PUTIN'S RUSSIA
By Alan Caruba
THE ROLE OF ENERGY IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS: RUSSIA & THE GEOPOLITICS OF ENERGY -- ENERGY AS THE KEY
VARIABLE IN THE COLLAPSE OF THE FORMER SOVIET UNION & THE RE-EMERGENCE OF RUSSIA AS A WORLD POWER -- THE
FAILURE OF THE U.S.A. TO LEARN & PROFIT FROM THE RUSSIAN EXPERIENCE -- THE FOLLY & DANGER OF AMERICA'S
CURRENT NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY, A POLICY DICTATED BY THE POLITICAL IDEOLOGY & AGENDA OF THE
ENVIRONMENTALISTS -- THE URGENT NEED FOR AMERICANS TO BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND THE GEOPOLITICS OF ENERGY
FULL STORY:
When the government of the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the fall was attributed to all kinds of reasons. There was the
failed invasion of Afghanistan, the symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and, after some desperate efforts by Mikhail
Gorbechev, Communism as a guiding principle and economic system simply imploded. That’s the thumbnail version that
passes for history, but Michael J. Economides and Donna Marie D’Aleo have another answer, and it’s one you may not
want to hear.
“In the second half of the 1980s, the Soviet leadership came
face to face with the problems that arose as a result of the
dramatic drop in oil prices, and the necessity of increasing
the volume of capital investments in western Siberia’s oil
industry. They failed to provide adequate solutions to these
problems. The consequences were a rapid decrease in oil
production, a collapse of the consumer market, a growing
deficit of the most basic consumer goods, and the
bankruptcy of the Soviet Union.”
From Soviet to Putin and Back: The Dominance of Energy in Today’s Russia by the two authors cited above is not
likely to leap on the bestseller lists, but, for anyone who takes a serious interest in America’s future and in current world
affairs, it is the book to read, not only for its excellent history of the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, and what replaced
it, but for its unique insights regarding the role of energy.
Economides is Editor-in-Chief of Energy Tribune, a magazine for those who understand that energy is (1) the
master resource, (2) the primary force behind the rise of human civilization, and (3) the grand determinant in geopolitical
affairs. From our earliest times, when muscle power was the only source, to the modern era, energy in its many forms has
ruled the affairs of man.
Donna D’Aleo’s expertise is world affairs with an emphasis on Russia. When seeking the most fundamental cause for the
collapse of the former Soviet Union, we need look no further than “the fall in international oil prices and miscalculations
in the strategy for developing the deposits in western Siberia.”
Oil has been critical to the comeback the Russian Federation has made, and one must pause at this point and ask if
anyone in the United States Congress or the White House has a really good reason for restricting access to our nation’s
known reserves of oil in Alaska, as well as the unexplored and untapped reserves in 85% of our vast coastal shelf. This
question applies as well to natural gas, whose cost is rising too.
Being stupid or incompetent or both, when it comes to having a national energy policy, can bring a nation to its knees.
When you add in profligate spending, a needless war in the Middle East, and a currency whose value is in free fall, you
are essentially looking at the conditions eerily similar to those that faced the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Our current national energy policy focuses on such alternative means of providing electricity as highly subsidized solar
and wind power; ways to reduce gasoline use by mandating that ethanol be added or a formulation called biodiesel be
used; demanding that autos and trucks get more mileage from a gallon of gas while ethanol actually reduces mileage,
among other astonishingly insane notions that include a ban on the purchase of incandescent light bulbs.
All this has occurred at the same time that several states have opposed the building of coal-fired electricity generation
plants and the federal government regulates the building of nuclear plants down to a snail’s pace. Coal, cheap and
abundant, powers over 50% of America’s electricity. Add to this the difficulties imposed on building any new refineries
(none since the 1970s) or pipelines for oil and natural gas, the United States is essentially committing energy suicide.
By the time the Soviet Union collapsed, “oil was the country’s only major source of hard-currency revenue” and its
management from Moscow was so deficient that the entire political and economic system literary self-destructed. “By
proceeding without concern for conservation and efficiency, the Soviets fell behind technologically and economically.”
When OPEC decided to rebuke the United States in the 1970s by reducing OPEC's oil exports, the gas lines at service
stations shocked Americans, but, by then, the nation was no longer an exporter of oil, as in the heady days of Texas
and Oklahoma oil fields. There was a major power shift to the Middle Eastern nations sitting atop some of the world’s
greatest known oil reserves. The loss of our ally, Iran, in 1979 further exacerbated our reliance on foreign oil.
Since the United States imports a great deal of its current oil needs from Canada, you would think that the U.S.
Congress would not want to impede oil retrieved from that Canada’s tar sands, but you would be wrong. Congress has
passed legislation against its purchase by our military because it is deemed to be environmentally improper.
While Russia waited for its President, Boris Yeltzin, to sober up, the Soviet economy, from 1986 to 1989 stagnated, “and
then it experienced negative growth, a situation that lasted for the next ten years.” As the year 2000 dawned, Yeltzin
resigned and put Vladimir Putin, a longtime member of the Soviet security and intelligence apparatus, in charge of the
nation.
The story of the rise of the Russian oil oligarchs who privatized and revived the industry is a fascinating one, but the
way Putin and his former KGB colleagues forced out those who opposed them and stole the assets of Western oil
companies who had been induced to invest millions, if not billions, in the development of the vast Siberian reserves, is
dramatic and told in detail by Economides’ and D’Aleo’s in their book.
Facing imprisonment and even death, some of the initial billionaires who choose to oppose Putin and friends either fled
or, indeed, found themselves in prison on trumped up charges. Several murders of others, like crusading journalist Anna
Politkovskya, appalled the international community, but, by then, former intelligence operatives had seized the Russian
oil and natural gas industry. “Fully 80% of Russia’s leading politicians were former intelligence agents.”
Russia’s dominance in oil and natural gas is now being used “to project hegemony over its neighbors, from the Far East
(energy-starved China and Japan) to Europe in the west, and attempting to control transit (pipeline) countries such as
Ukraine and Belarus.” Communism, Soviet-style, is back in power in Russia under Putin, while America “has been
helplessly watching Russia’s re-emergence.”
At the heart of this new threat to America’s role in the world is oil and natural gas. Unless Americans begin to
understand the geopolitics of energy — and soon — a lifestyle we have taken for granted is going to be severely
impacted.
This explains why we have 160,000 troops in Iraq in a vain attempt to have some sway over its oil industry, why we have
carrier groups parked just off the Persian Gulf fearing a nuclear-armed Iran, and why we will sell Saudi Arabia any military
hardware it wants, while continuing to guarantee the sovereignty of oil sheikdoms like Kuwait and the UAE.
What it does not explain is why our government has done everything in its power to thwart the exploration, discovery,
and extraction of our own energy assets.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Russia & Other Former Soviet Republics
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba has a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2008
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity