MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Peter Lavelle.)
Russian President Vladimir Putin takes his seat at the G-8 summit table in Gleneagles today as the only leader in the group who bridges East and West.
With Russia relatively poor compared to its Western peers and neighboring a Chinese economy bursting at the seams, the Kremlin relies on the country’s vast energy resources and commitment to international security arrangements to engage both, as well as to carve it out a unique position in the world.
Putin’s recent spree of global summits demonstrates Russia’s foreign policy imperatives. In between meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao in Moscow to discuss energy issues and later in Kazakhstan at a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization to discuss regional security, Putin met with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad to stress strong links with its Western peers. After from his second meeting with Hu, Putin takes his seat at the Gleneagles summit as still another demonstration of Russia’s rightful place among leading Western counters, as well as on the global scene in general.
Putin’s mix of East-West meetings is surely no coincidence – the Kremlin has careful designed the president’s itinerary to maximize Russia’s foreign policy assets when dealing with its powerful neighbors and to carefully capitalize on its most valuable foreign policy tool – the politics of energy.
Hu arrived in Moscow to petition the Kremlin for greater access to Russian oil via pipelines and direct investment into Russia’s oil patch. Russia and China have put on a brave face when describing the Hu-Putin meeting, though the outcome was much less than Hu had hoped for. In the end, the Russian side equivocated. The Chinese National Petroleum Company signed an agreement to develop the vast oil reserves of Sakhalin III with state-owned Rosneft. During their Kazakhstan meeting, it is rumored that China may be allowed to increase cooperation with Kremlin-friendly Russian oil giant Lukoil at the expense of Western companies. Considering China’s alleged financial involvement with Russia’s domestic energy policies, Hu expected more to enhance his country’s growing energy needs.
To compensate for the lack of a stronger commitment from the Russian side concerning its oil sector, Russia and the other countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization warned against any country in the world taking unilateral actions that threatened international security (clearly a message directed at the United States) and issued a demand that the United States establish a timetable to withdraw military bases from Central Asia.
The summit in Kaliningrad was publicly pitched as an occasion focused on history and reconciliation. However, energy was high on the agenda. Petroleum was not the primary issue, but natural gas and electricity exports to Europe, and in particular to Germany, were. In what can been seen as a victory for energy giant Gazprom over utility monopolist United Energy Systems, Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller stressed that increased electricity exports to Europe should not be at the expense of national gas exports. In an important gesture acknowledging the clout of Russia’s oil sector, Putin publicly thanked Lukoil’s CEO Vagit Alekperov for sponsoring the event.
The historical focus of the Kaliningrad summit did play a role, but not in the way one would have expected. Senior officials from Poland and Lithuania were not invited to the summit, even though both border Kaliningrad. Widely interpreted as a public Kremlin snub to all the Baltic states due to border differences and conflicting interpretations of history, the real message the Kremlin wanted to send is that it prefers to deal with its international peers over new members of the European Union.
The string of summits highlights how Russia sees its place in the world and how it interacts with its partners. First, energy is the tool to secure international recognition and compensation while Russia continues to reform and restructure its economy. Second, Russia’s political and economic position bridging East and West is reflected in domestic policy. Market reforms reflect Russia’s link to the West and its “Westernization,” while concentrating political and economic power at the center is pursued to duplicate the economic success of China. Third, as a hybrid of East and West, Russia has made it clear it prefers state-owned, rather than private, companies as primary energy partners. While this approach is often vexing for Russia’s partners, this is a reflection of Putin’s desire to have “strategic sectors” under state control to project international influence.
Attending the Gleneagles summit, Putin can be satisfied that Russia is very much needed in the world and a necessary Western bridge to China. The Chinese need Russian energy and Russia’s positive influence in Central Asia to maintain security. Europe too needs Russia energy, with the added caveat that “Old Europe” remains committed to integrating Russia in Western institutions, despite criticisms of Russia domestic policies. With Russia to host next year’s G-8 meeting and international demand only set to increase, Putin’s aim to bridge West and East will be center stage.
