Part 2 of the Russian Natural Gas and Geopolitical Realignment Series
By George McMillan, owner of McMillan Geostrategic Consulting
Introduction—Cold War History of Soviet Oil and Natural Gas Pipelines
The indication that Russian oil and especially natural gas shipped by pipeline is the biggest threat to geopolitical realignment can be seen by the reaction of the United States as Russia began developing its oil and Gas fields in the Caspian, Ural, and Arctic regions in the 1950s and then began constructing pipelines to the Warsaw Pact countries in Eastern and Central Europe via the Druzbha Pipeline in the mid-1960s.
As anticipated, the logical extension of the pipelines would be to move them through the Warsaw Pact countries and onto Italy in Southern Europe, as well as into neutral German-speaking Austria where it could be transported to the neutral German-speaking countries of Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Southern Germany via the Southern branch of the Druzhba Pipeline and from Poland to East Germany and on to West Germany via the Northern branch of the Druzhba pipeline.
Following Mahan’s differentiation of “production” and “wealth,” petroleum “production” does not become “wealth” until it is traded for goods that a country needs for further economic development but does not produce. In this case, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union wanted convertible Western currencies to purchase technical equipment and machine tools from the West so they could reverse-engineer them and catch up in terms of economic know-how and dual-use capabilities.
“Russia Will Freeze Europeans and Invade Europe”