The Oil and the Glory: Is Putin simply predisposed to vex the West?

Putin's energy gambit is an example of him acting on the opportunistic side, specifically in the realm where Russian politics frequently find animation -- in the construction, or blockage, of energy pipelines. In the current case, Putin has managed to seriously out-maneuver U.S. and European political leaders by advancing the prospects of South Stream, a proposed $21 billion natural gas pipeline from Russia to Europe, crossing underneath the Black Sea.

First, Putin last Wednesday got Turkey -- which since the mid-1990s has played only for the Western team when it comes to pipeline politics -- to cross over just this once, and allow South Stream to occupy its territorial waters in the Black Sea. Then on Friday, he followed up the coup with an orchestrated television appearance in which he casually agreed to a suggestion by Alexei Miller, the head of natural gas giant Gazprom, to accelerate South Stream by a year, and begin to build it by the end of 2012. 

If this actually happens, it could mean that South Stream would be ready in 2014, and not 2015 as previously reckoned. That would gravely impact Western proposals for Nabucco, a rival natural gas pipeline intended also to serve Europe, but transport only non-Russian gas. Nabucco's proponents advocate it as a way to reduce Europe's reliance on Moscow, and hence a feared danger of gas-fueled Russian political advantage on the continent.   MORE