The West’s attempts to use NATO as a tool of bringing pressure to bear on Russia in the dialogue on energy matters have no future. This is what the chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee for International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev told US Senator Richard Lugar in response to his suggestion to see certain energy problems with Moscow as a pretext for a NATO war against Russia.]

This US politician is known for his radical anti-Russian pronouncements. Yet his statement is to an extent indicative. It was made a day before the NATO summit and, no doubt, proves that the so-called “hawks” in the alliance prefer to resolve international problems from the position of strength. In addition, this can be seen as an attempt to provide NATO with a kind of “energy” weapon. According to Konstantin Kosachev, Russian deliveries of fuel to Western Europe have nothing to do with NATO, and it is improper to discuss the matter at a NATO summit.

The head of the State Duma committee also said that Russia would not allow anyone to drag it into discussion of those matters which are the prerogative of businessmen. The thing is quite clear. The West groundlessly accuses Russia of using fuel deliveries to reach its political goals whereas it has been using politics for economic ends. What is meant is the attempt to intimidate Russia with NATO’s help, to threaten it with the use of force in the resolution of global energy matters. US Senator Richard Lugar does not speak of the need to build up a global security system, he speaks of a new “iron curtain” between the West and Russia. Here is an opinion from political analyst Dmitry Suslov.

Senator Lugar’s statement is shocking. Western politicians have taken an attitude to Russian fuel as if oil and gas fields belong to them as well as pipelines and they control oil and gas flows. But why? The reason is the West is loosing political control of the world power engineering, its political domination of the world economy. In the attempt to remedy the situation the West begins a noisy campaign against Russia, its goal is to take full control of Russian power engineering.
Clearly, the West is not prepared so far to treat Russia as an equal partner. This is why the issue of the NATO’ role in ensuring guaranteed fuel deliveries to member-states was included into the agenda of a NATO summit. This is also the reason for sable-rattling in energy matters. The West itself makes more difficult its dialogue with Russia on energy matters and erects obstacles on the way to compromises.