The Commentator: Europe cannot do without Putin's gas
Soviet Russia established itself as a reliable supplier of reasonably priced gas to Western Europe during the Cold War. It is easy to forget how unlikely this seemed at the time. The driver was the development of colossal Siberian gas reserves that far exceeded the requirements of the Soviet Union and its Comecon satellites.
Relatively modest relationships were established in the Seventies with companies in West Germany, France and Italy, but larger and more ambitious contracts, and the pipelines to go with them, were forged in the early 1980s in the teeth of opposition from Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
These contracts have been expanded and adapted since the Soviet Union's collapse, and post-Soviet Russia remains an integral part of Europe's energy industry, supplying 24 percent of the EU's gas last year. Revenue from energy exported to Europe is equally important to Russia, representing about a fifth of its GDP.