Russia may face wars over energy

Reuters
Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Russia may face wars on its borders in the near future over control of energy resources, a Kremlin document on security policy said on Wednesday.

The paper did not name potential adversaries, but Russia, the world’s biggest energy producer, shares a border of more than 3,600 km (2,250 miles) with resource-hungry China and a small sea border with the United States.

“In a competition for resources, problems that involve the use of military force cannot be excluded that would destroy the balance of forces close to the borders of the Russian Federation and her allies,” said the document, which maps out Russia’s security strategy until 2020.

“The attention of international politics in the long-term perspective will be concentrated on the acquisition of energy resources,” the paper said.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

It said regions where such a competition for resources could arise included the Middle East, the Barents Sea, the Arctic, the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. Russia also sees increased competition for food, fresh water and land.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

The strategy document was approved by President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday and published on Wednesday by the Russian Security Council, which includes Russia’s top politicians and intelligence chiefs and is chaired by Medvedev.

Russia, the world’s largest producer of gas and second biggest exporter of oil, sees these resources as a way to revive its clout as an “energy superpower” after the chaos which accompanied the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Full story here.

Print this page.

Comment Rules

Comments are closed.