![Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, at a press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban after their talks in the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, Sept. 18, 2018 (AP photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko).](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/l_russia-hungary-putin-orban-11192018-1.jpg?w=519&h=259&crop=1)
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry toured Central and Eastern Europe in mid-November, touting America’s credentials and warning countries against deepening their ties to Russia. The visit was part of a new push by the Trump administration in a region where energy is part of a wider geopolitical rivalry. Ostensibly arriving as a salesman for the U.S. liquified natural gas and nuclear industries, Perry signaled that Washington was ready to step up in a tussle that has long pitted Russia—with its vast gas resources and nuclear ties to former Soviet bloc countries—against the European Union. It’s a tussle that China is […]