Forbes: Fracking could free Europe from Putin
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen recently announced that the Russian intelligence service was covertly funding European environmental NGOs to support their campaign against fracking. The former Danish Prime Minister stated that he had “met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organizations – environmental organizations working against shale gas – to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas.”
The accusations do not seem too far-fetched. Russia is very keen on dissuading Europe from exploiting its shale reserves. Disregardful of their own massive fracking projects in Siberia, Vladimir Putin uses environmental arguments to push an EU-wide fracking ban. In a similar fashion, he tries to discourage the US from exporting of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Europe. This is an option some European politicians such as Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague suggested as a way to reduce European energy dependency from Russia. It is currently on the table in the negotiations on the trade agreement between the European Union and the United States (TTIP). Instead of building the infrastructure for transatlantic LNG exports, Putin actually advises the US to concentrate on the Asian market, which according to him would be more profitable for American companies.
Moscow’s goal clearly is to keep the EU dependent on Russia. And indeed, large parts of Europe heavily rely on Russian gas imports: Finland, Lithuania and Bulgaria get all their gas, while and it is the source for about 40 percent of Germany’s supply. That is why EU leaders remain reluctant to impose sanctions on the country, despite the near-universal condemnation of Russian actions in Ukraine. Poland’s Prime Minister Tusk recently warned Chancellor Merkel that “German dependence on Russian gas could effectively limit European sovereignty.”