Why Can Russia “Divide and Rule” Central and Eastern Europe in Energy Policy?

Berta, Szilárd (2015) Why Can Russia “Divide and Rule” Central and Eastern Europe in Energy Policy? ACADEMIC AND APPLIED RESEARCH IN MILITARY AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, 14 (3). pp. 357-377. ISSN 2498-5392 (print); 2786-0744 (online)

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Abstract

The strategic challenge of the dependence of Central European countries in terms of hydrocarbon import, specifically natural gas, has not been resolved in the past 25 years. Despite repeated calls for joint action – developing common policies, designing joint frameworks, supporting the launch of major European energy infrastructure projects together – 25 years after the change of regime period the region still stands vulnerable to Russian economic penetration and political influence stemming from our large-scale dependence on Russian gas import. The paper investigates the roots and causes of this deficiency in order to answer the question: “Why and how can Russia still ‘Divide and Rule’ Central-Eastern Europe in energy policy?” Since we have witnessed the failure of the Nabucco and Southern Stream pipeline projects in recent years, facing the current challenges of the Ukraine crisis, making transit unpredictable, and perceiving a certain dissent among the Visegrád Four (V4) in this regard, the paper is to identify the particular interests and negotiation techniques of the parties in order to explain the reasons of failure.

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