Russia Has the Edge in the High-Stakes Scramble for European Energy Markets

Russia Has the Edge in the High-Stakes Scramble for European Energy Markets
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 now angling to join.

The stakes are high. “We have to keep in mind our geopolitical orientation while investing into nuclear power,” Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said after meeting with Perry. The Czech government revealed in late October it has yet again delayed a tender on a nuclear energy plan, long in the works, to expand beyond its two existing nuclear power plants, if it can secure funding. The U.S. and Russia are both vying for the contract, along with China and other main nuclear suppliers.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review