TV Commentator Hurt By US Suggestion Russia Might Use “Energy Weapon”

Text of commentary by Russian Channel One Europe TV on 31 January

["Odnako" presenter Mikhail Leontyev] This is “Odnako”. Hello. The USA must control all energy resources, above all Russian ones. This is the import of a legislative initiative before the US Senate.

[Female voice-over] On the opening day of the newly elected US Congress nine senators, including the Republican [Richard] Lugar, a former chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, the Democrat [Joseph] Biden [voice-over actually says "Briden"] – who, by the way, is the new chairman of the same committee – and the independent senator [Joseph] Lieberman, tabled a bill entitled the “Energy Diplomacy and Security Act”. The bill shows that energy security is becoming a priority for the USA and the West since this security depends on several oil and gas powers which control the main raw material reserves. The energy weapon is effectively becoming a strategic weapon, and so-called energy wars are becoming tantamount to conventional wars, with all the consequences which stem from that. In the forthcoming decade the most likely cause of armed conflict in the European theatre and adjacent regions will be shortage of energy and manipulation of supplies, the initiator of the bill, Senator Lugar, said the previous day. The use of energy as a weapon is not a theoretical threat of the future. It is something which is already happening.

[Leontyev, sarcastically] Of course, Russia is the country which is most likely to use the energy weapon. But there are other bad countries. The senator specifically mentions Iran and Venezuela. The senator proposes using NATO as a weapon in the energy war. The organization must become a military alliance of consumers of energy resources.

The funniest thing is that, ever since the days of the Soviet Union, Russia has always been – and continues to be – the most reliable, the most selfless supplier of hydrocarbons to the West. What’s more, Russia has always played the role of oil strike breaker. When OPEC reduced production in order to boost prices, we pumped and pumped as much oil as we possibly could. We have always been proud of this record and intend to go on being proud of it. Indeed, Dmitriy Medvedev’s promise to overtake Saudi Arabia testifies to this. In fact, those notorious energy wars with Ukraine and Belarus amount to a struggle against transit blackmailers for the right to reliable and free transit of hydrocarbons to the West.

In other words, it is absolutely obvious that any adjustment of Russia’s energy policies can only harm the interests of the West and its real energy security.

[Female voice-over] During the recent visit by the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Igor Ivanov, to Iran, Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene’i proposed to Russia that the two countries establish an organization of gas-exporting countries, along the lines of OPEC, since these countries possess half the world’s reserves of natural gas. It is, above all, Russia, Iran and Qatar which would belong to a gas-producing OPEC. Some 57 per cent of the world’s supplies of gas are concentrated in those countries. The organization could also include some Central Asian countries.

[Leontyev] However, the fact is that Russian gas, which is supplied along pipelines, is not an exchange commodity and cartel agreements are not very effective here. The Iranian proposal is more political [than economic]. But, indeed, why should we reject something over which we have already been the target of so many accusations and so much condemnation? This is now the time to think about joining OPEC – the real one, not the proposed gas one. But judge for yourselves. The USA has waged all its post-Soviet wars, both overt and covert ones, for control of energy resources and transportation routes for them. At the end of the day, by artificially restricting its own oil production and, thus, artificially making itself the world’s biggest importer, the USA is itself undermining the energy security of everybody except for itself. That’s why the USA has less interest than anybody else in any sort of energy security, except for its own. The only thing Russia has done wrong is to be in a position to create this security for everybody, and furthermore is proposing precisely this. And this is not good because it undermines America’s global leadership, which is already under strain. Hence these paranoid bills.

Goodbye from “Odnako”.

[1832 gmt: Video shows scenes at the US Congress, oil and gas infrastructure, gas pipeline construction, Igor Ivanov in discussions with Ahmadinezhad, shots of Khamene'i speaking.]

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.