Energy blackmail

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Energy blackmail is, as defined by the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), a strategic manipulation of energy resources for political or economic gain. It involves primarily oil and natural gas, but also potentially other fuels such as nuclear fuel. [1] Energy blackmail has been used by countries to leverage their energy resources for decades, but the term was popularised after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to refer to Russian statements and actions in respect to its relationship with other states and with the European Union (EU). [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Contents

History

In 1960, OPEC was founded in Baghdad by Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, [9] as a cartel to fix the price of oil on the world market. [10] In 1973 OPEC imposed an embargo on the United States and other countries that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War, including Netherlands, Portugal, and South Africa. [11]

In 2017, the United States pressured China and other members of the United Nations Security Council to end oil shipments to North Korea in an effort to stop them from continuing their ICBM programme. [12] [13] [14] In 2024 the United States and South Korea established a task force to block North Korea from acquiring oil. [15]

In May 2023, the European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's energy blackmail of Europe had failed. [16]

In December 2024, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, accused Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia of opening "a second front" against Ukraine on Putin's orders, in response to Robert Fico's threats to cut off electricity from Slovakia to Ukraine. [17] [18] [19] Robert Fico threatened to cut off energy supplies after Ukraine refused to renew the deal with Russia regarding transport of gas to European Union countries through Ukrainian territory. [20]

In January 2025, the Moldovan government accused Russia of blackmail in regards to gas supplies to the unrecognized breakaway state of Transnistria in its territory, arguing that Russia sought to provoke an energy crisis that would undermine Moldova's pro-Western policies at the time of the 2025 Moldovan parliamentary election later that year. Russia denied the allegations. [21] [22]

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russia in the European energy sector</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energy in Moldova</span>

With few natural energy resources, Moldova imports almost all of its energy supplies. 50% of the country's national energy company, Moldovagaz, is owned by Russian oil and natural gas supplier Gazprom, the remaining 36% split between the Moldovan government (36.6%) and the unrecognised government of Transnistria (13.4%). Moldova's historic dependence on Russian energy is underscored by a debt of more than US$709 million to Gazprom as well as a further US$7 billion by Transnistria. Russia supplies the breakaway pro-Russian region with oil and natural gas without requiring them to pay, with the cost levied as debt against the Moldovan state as a form of economic warfare. The Moldovan government disputes the figures, and has identified more than US$100 million in fraudulent claims by Gazprom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">China–Russia relations</span> Bilateral relations

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022–2023 Russia–European Union gas dispute</span> Fossil fuel financing-related conflicts

The Russia–EU gas dispute flared up in March 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Russia and the major EU countries clashed over the issue of payment for natural gas pipelined to Europe by Russia's Gazprom, amidst sanctions on Russia that were expanded in response to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In June, Gazprom claimed it was obliged to cut the flow of gas to Germany by more than half, as a result of such sanctions that prevented the Russian company from receiving its turbine component from Canada. On 26 September 2022, three of the four pipes of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines were sabotaged. This resulted in a record release of 115,000 tonnes of methane (CH4) – an equivalent of 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) – and is believed to have made a contribution to global warming.

The 2021–2022 global energy crisis has caused varying effects in different parts of the world.

Starting in late 2022, Moldova suffered an energy crisis, the worst since its independence. Hugely influenced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, caused when Russia's Gazprom reduced supplies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lukoil oil transit dispute</span> Slovak-Hungarian diplomatic dispute against Ukraine oil sanctions

The Lukoil oil transit dispute is an ongoing international relations dispute between Ukraine and the European Union at odds with Hungary and Slovakia regarding the allowance of the pipeline transfer of Russian oil through Ukrainian territory. The diplomatic standoff arose when on 24 July 2024, Ukraine imposed sanctions on Lukoil — Russia's largest private oil firm — effectively halting oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline, which the latter two nations stated would lead to an energy crisis and economic collapse. In response, Hungary and Slovakia complained to the European Commission while threatening to halt military aid shipments, energy, and diesel supplies to Ukraine.

References

  1. ↑ Slakaityte, Veronika; Surwillo, Izabela (9 January 2024). "Energy as a weapon - decoding blackmail tactics in Europe". Danish Institute for International Studies.
  2. ↑ Ganapathy, Cauvery (2024). "Leverage in Energy Security: Weaponising For Good and Bad". In Mishra, Omprakash; Sen, Souradeep (eds.). Global Political Economy, Geopolitics and International Security: The World in Permacrisis. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 176. doi:10.1007/978-981-97-2231-0. ISBN   978-981-97-2230-3. Given that there is evidence now to suggest that by March 2021 (Kramer 2021), President Putin had made up his mind regarding the invasion of Ukraine in the coming spring, the decision by the Russians to reduce the supply of gas to Europe, could well account for a case of energy blackmail.
  3. ↑ Bryjka, Filip (12 May 2023). "How the War in Ukraine Impacts NATO Policy in the Black Sea Region". PISM Bulletin. 57 (2176). Polish Institute of International Affairs: 1. Through hybrid methods, Russia is destabilising the internal situation in Moldova where it uses energy blackmail, disinformation, and financing of protests to undermine the pro-European Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) government and replace it with the pro-Russian Şor Party.
  4. ↑ Kirkegaard, Jacob Funk (30 September 2023). "Russia's invasion of Ukraine has cemented the European Union's commitment to carbon pricing". Policy Brief 23-13. Peterson Institute for International Economics. p. 1. Despite the energy shock of 2022, the price of EU carbon emissions permits was maintained in the €85 per ton range once Russia's energy blackmail became apparent in late 2021.
  5. ↑ Shelest, Hanna (13 December 2015). "Hybrid War & the Eastern Partnership: Waiting for a Correlation" (PDF). Turkish Policy Quarterly . Vol. 14, no. 3. p. 46. This pressure in the form of trade wars, energy blackmail, discreditable propaganda, diplomatic deceit, and coercion to join alternative regional integration projects has been felt by almost all Eastern Partnership states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine).
  6. ↑ Ekmanis, Indra (28 October 2024). "Contesting Russia: The Baltic Perspective". Baltic Bulletin. Eurasia Program. Foreign Policy Research Institute. The Baltic states, in turn, have responded by turning areas of risk into areas of expertise: for example, [...] on Energy Security in Lithuania (2012), where previous dependency on Russia left the country vulnerable to energy blackmail;
  7. ↑ Korybko, Andrew (6 June 2014). "The Prospects for the South Stream Pipeline after the Ukrainian Crisis" (PDF). Foreign Policy Journal.
  8. ↑ Blank, Stephen (27 August 2013). "Russia Pressures Armenia to Join Customs Union". The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst. Central Asia-Caucasus Institute. Moscow's two abiding goals are to integrate the entire post-Soviet space under its domination and as part of that larger multi-dimensional process, ensure that it is the only security manager in the Caucasus. Not only is it now using energy blackmail against Armenia; [...]
  9. ↑ "What is OPEC+ and how does it affect oil prices?". Reuters . 24 May 2024. Retrieved 16 January 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ↑ "Opec: What is it and what is happening to oil prices?". 2022-05-03. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
  11. ↑ "OPEC Oil Embargo 1973–1974". U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved January 16, 2025.
  12. ↑ Sanger, David E.; Sang-Hun, Choe (2017-09-04). "U.S. Urges Fuel Cutoff for North Korea, Saying It's 'Begging for War'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2025-01-16.
  13. ↑ Zhao, Tong (2017-12-01). "Why an oil embargo won't stop North Korea". CNN. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
  14. ↑ "Sorry, an Oil Embargo Won't Lead to North Korea's Capitulation". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
  15. ↑ Smith, Josh (27 March 2024). "US, South Korea set up task force to block North Korea oil shipments". Reuters . Retrieved 16 January 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ↑ "Putin's energy blackmail of Europe has failed, commissioner says". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2023-07-25. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
  17. ↑ "Zelenskyy on Slovak PM's blackmail: 'It appears that Putin gave Fico the order'". RBC-Ukraine. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
  18. ↑ Hunder, Max (28 December 2024). "Ukraine's Zelenskiy hits back at Slovak PM Fico as gas transit dispute deepens". Reuters . Retrieved 16 January 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ↑ "Putin 'appears to have ordered Slovakia's Fico to open second energy front against Ukraine,' Zelensky says". Yahoo News. 2024-12-28. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
  20. ↑ "Slovakia to consider reciprocal measures if Ukraine stops Russian gas transit, Fico says". Reuters . 27 December 2024. Retrieved 16 January 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ↑ Maynes, Charles (9 January 2025). "Here's what's behind Russia cutting off its last gas line to Europe". NPR . Retrieved 16 January 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ↑ Güngör, Yasin (16 November 2024). "EU Commission chief accuses Russia of energy 'blackmail'". Anadolu Agency .


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