MOSCOW. (Anatoly Belyaev, expert with the Agency of Humanitarian Technologies, for RIA Novosti.)

An overwhelming majority of Western experts view President Vladimir Putin's article published in The Wall Street Journal on February 28, 2006, as an attempt to convince the West of Russia's reliability as an energy partner. However, the article discloses the Russian leaders' strategic plans and approaches that go much farther and even points to certain disagreements among the Russian elite on the global energy problem.

The main thesis of the article's energy part (it also takes up such global problems as infectious diseases and illiteracy) is stated in its title, "Energy Egotism is a Road to Nowhere." The Russian president recalls that this is a problem facing not only "the golden billion" of the industrialized countries' population, but also the entire humankind and proposes to set up a global energy security system.

Naturally, one could agree with assessments that are popular in the West that proposing to the Group of Eight and the West to discuss the problem, Russia seeks to use its natural economic advantages, first of all, unique energy resources. The country has 45% of the world's gas reserves, 13% of oil, 23% of coal and 14% of uranium. By 1990 the world countries extracted 18% of global reserves of oil and 13% of gas, whereas in Russia the figures were 12% and 3%, respectively, which means that it boasts a high energy potential. This is proved by more recent data: since 2000, Russia has accounted for 40% of the increase in global oil output, being the decisive factor in maintaining the balance of oil supply and demand.

Perhaps, Russia's partners should listen to its proposals on solving energy security problems. Recently, the Western press has written a lot about Russia's alleged unreliability as an energy partner, following the Russian-Ukrainian "gas dispute", which led to a partial energy shortage in Europe. Mass media have extensively dwelled on the purposeful policies of European countries and the United States to diversify energy supply and develop alternative energy sources. However, serious experts have calculated that the West's dependence on Russian energy will only increase in the coming decades.

At the same time, making energy proposals to the West, Russia does not intend to remain its energy appendage. Somehow none of the experts has noticed Putin's other initiative voiced in the article. The President said that Russia supported closer efforts of the G8 and the entire international community to promote innovation technologies. He believes this could be the first stage in creating the technological basis for the future energy supply to the humankind, when the energy potential in its present form will be exhausted. So Moscow's proposal to create an international uranium enrichment center in Russia is not a coincidence, but a systemic approach. In this way the Russian leadership is trying to promote the country's technological potential, and also integrate it with the Western potential, using energy cooperation as one of the tools.

Finally, the President's proposal to create a fair "world energy order" is repeated in many comments, but is not spelled out, especially with regard to Russian realities. As it is, the matter is not very simple. We are witnessing the ambitious plans of oil companies from the most energy hungry countries (China and India) to buy stakes in Russian oil producers at the highest possible price in order to guarantee energy supplies to their countries. It is not ruled out that China's CNPC and India's ONGC may well buy into Rosneft or other companies and projects. In fact, there is an ongoing struggle, not only institutional, but also political and economic, for access to Russian energy resources in Siberia, the Far East and Sakhalin. At present the East, represented by the two Asian giants, is trying to boost its energy potential at Russia's expense, while the West is seeking to increase its presence in the Russian energy sector.

In this context, Putin's article acquires a specific meaning: in fact, the Russian President sends a signal to both international players and Russian economic and political elites that are closely connected with them, saying that Russia will pursue an energy policy that is first of all beneficial to itself, a policy of equidistance in business cooperation with the world's different political and economic centers.