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).

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 […]