Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega on Global Energy, Valdai Discussion Club
Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, director of Ifri’s Centre for Energy, discusses various issues related to the energy market, from the strategic move of Russia towards Saudi Arabia and the role of the United States to the recent prices collapses and gas crises.
France's 'yellow vests' and the Russian trolls that encourage them
Russian social media trolls reportedly helped stoke the 'yellow vest' protests — France's largest demonstrations in years. DW talked to social media experts to find out more.
WPC 2018 - Statement by Thierry de Montbrial
Thierry de Montbrial makes a statement on the 11th edition of the World Policy Conference (WPC) held from October, 26-28, 2018, in Rabat, Morocco.
An interview led by John Andrews, contributing editor, The Economist.
Russia, France look for way out of geopolitical deadlock
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron are due to hold a meeting in St. Petersburg.
Macron Heads to Russia in European Effort to Salvage Iran Deal
French President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Russia this week once threatened to split France from its European allies. Now it’s part of a wider European effort to tie President Vladimir Putin to the Iran nuclear accord.
As fighting rages, can Russia forge a peace in Syria?
Nearly two and a half years after the Russian military began an intensive bombing campaign in Syria in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia is struggling to engineer a political solution in the war-ravaged country, analysts say.
Missiles of March: A political means of last resort for Putin
President Vladimir Putin’s extra-heavy emphasis on new strategic missile systems in his March 1 address to parliament was quite unexpected and rather out of character.
RT Brings Its Russian Perspective to France
RT, dubbed as an "organ of influence and deceitful propaganda" by President Emmanuel Macron in May during a joint news conference with Vladimir Putin, has now launched RT France. Has France become the latest front in Russia's information war?
RT Brings Its Russian Perspective to France
PARIS — Minutes after it began broadcasting on Monday night, the new television channel RT France took aim at the country and its president, Emmanuel Macron. “President Assad accuses France of supporting terrorism,” the scroll at the bottom of the screen stated. France and the United States are part of a coalition committed to removing Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, and Mr. Assad has accused France of merely prolonging Syria’s civil war, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives since 2011.
Economic Constraint and Ukraine's Security Policy
Since winning the 2010 presidential elections in Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych has worked hard to repair Kyiv's relationship with Moscow.
Nordstream: Just-in-time?
Last week the gritty Russian/Ukrainian gas relationship was back in the press. This time the issue appeared to be Ukraine’s efforts to secure lower prices for its consumers - perhaps even on a par with Russia’s domestic consumers. The Ukrainians must surely know that to qualify for those kinds of special prices available previously only to politically compliant neighbors - Ukraine would have to return to some form of pre-Orange Revolution relationship with Mother Russia.
Russian Gas Diplomacy
Thank goodness our early warning systems during the cold war were not structured so we could see the flash at the same time we heard the warning. On Monday, the Russians notified the Europeans under an “Early Warning” agreement negotiated after the last Ukrainian gas cutoff that they had already cut gas flows to Belarus by 15% and that would increase cuts to 85% by the end of the week. Not very good news for the Belarusians who enjoy the most gasified economy in the world - everything there runs on gas.
Russia and Turkey: Rethinking Europe to Contest Outsider Status
International relations in Europe are now entering a period of flux as the legacy of the cold war wanes and the "outsider" countries, notably Russia and Turkey, are rethinking their mutual relations as well as their place in the world.
A Smiling Medveded
In Denmark last Tuesday, President Medvedev said he had a smiling face for the world. Not surprising. The deal he is reported to have done with President Yanukovitch should bring smiles to many Russian faces - mostly in the Kremlin. However, it is unlikely that the President’s namesake in Gazprom, Alexandre Medvedev is smiling because his company’s interests have once again been subordinated to Russia’s foreign policy agenda.
Who Needs OPEC - Russia steps up to the Plate ?
News that Conoco will sell off a significant portion of its Russian holdings is couched in terms of various corporate strategies that make all this perfectly normal. Conoco is said to need cash and will anyway have a 10% share remaining in Lukoil that will provide them some degree of influence in corporate decisions.
Ukraine - A Transit Country in Deadlock? Four Scenarios
Should we consider Ukraine a transit country in deadlock, and reduce its energy role just to that of a transit country? Definitely not, because Ukraine is at once a large gas consumer and producer, and possesses massive storage capacity. But the economic and political situation of the country is alarming, even without considering the possibility of another gas crisis Without such a crisis, however, the event of Ukrainian bankruptcy would attract less broad international attention simply because it would not have direct impact on European gas consumers.
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