The Russian oil and gas sector has been under significant pressure this year, but has continued to withstand sanctions. Recently, however, Ukraine has launched a series of massive drone attacks against Russian oil refineries, significantly lowering their capacity and making a noticeable dent in Russia’s horn of plenty.
At the same time, global oil prices have slumped, which further complicates Moscow’s management of budget revenues. How is Russia coping with these challenges? Is the expanded energy partnership with China providing a helping hand? And are Western hopes that the Russian war economy’s energy engine will break down in the next twelve months rooted in reality?
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Ekaterina Schulmann, a non-resident senior fellow at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the German ambassador to Russia, at the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum to discuss the last thirty years of Russian history and how freedom turned into dictatorship and war.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Elizaveta Fokht, a BBC Russian Service special correspondent, to discuss how Russia tried and failed to win over Trump.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Edward Fishman, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, to discuss the new U.S. sanctions targeting Russia’s two largest crude producers.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Robert Zoellick, formerly a president of the World Bank, U.S. trade representative, and U.S. deputy secretary of state, to discuss initiatives to seize Russian assets and give them to Ukraine, along with the associated legal hurdles.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Justyna Gotkowska, deputy director of the Center for Eastern Studies in Warsaw, to discuss the latest Russia-related incidents over Denmark, Estonia, Norway, and Poland, and what they mean for NATO.