Europe Is Making Bold Moves
Back in 2009 the EU passed the Third Energy Package, which said that
Russia can't both own and control pipelines on the EU territory.
(Russia filed a lawsuit with the WTO against the EU over this in April 2014, after the first rounds of Western sanctions.)
Additionally,
the EU has been putting taxpayers' money into new inter-connectors, so
now if Russia decides to cut off supplies, the affected countries can
still get gas from somewhere else,
Russia's Hegemonic Control Over Gas In The Past
Back in late November, Putin coolly noted that "winter is coming," and thus he was "sure the market will come into balance again in the first quarter or toward the middle of next year."
What he meant by that was that cold weather is great news for the
Russian economy because Europeans would have to import more oil and
natural gas.
"It is the power of colder weather that
allows Russia, as the key supplier of energy to Europe, to apply
leverage. That leverage can take the form of higher prices, restricted
volumes, a combination of both, or negotiations that directly or
indirectly affect these additional costs," Cumberland Advisors Chair David Kotok wrote in August.
Russia provided one-third of the natural gas that
European countries relied on both for heating their homes and running
industries. Since Russia played such a huge role in the gas market, it
was able to command high prices.
But the European winter is pretty mild this year, the Economist notes, so "even if Russia did try to interrupt supplies, the effect would be modest."
Russia's Future Game Plan Outside Of Europe
Russia has been publically exploring energy (and military)
relationships with countries outside of Europe — most notably, China and
India.
In May 2014, Russia's Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) signed a historic 30-year contract to supply natural gas to China.
