When the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said on Monday that Russia "uses natural gas as a weapon," he was referring to a problem that dates back to the days of the Soviet Union: the geopolitical benefit that Russia has derived. of the enormous dependence of various European countries on their natural gas.
A study by Rice University, in the United States, counted 15 occasions in which Russia manipulated the price of gas or the supply to different European countries for political reasons from 1990 with the independence of the Baltic countries until 2015, a year later. of the invasion of Crimea.
Ukraine has been the country that has suffered the most from these supply cuts.
Russia is the country with the second largest natural gas reserves in the world.
The journalist specialized in energy and collaborator of Agenda Pública Anna Gumbau points out that the discovery of natural gas deposits in Siberia in the 70s and 80s "coincided with a time of economic development in Europe, therefore the energy cycles of all countries Europeans were influenced by this situation.
"Let's not forget that the oil crisis occurred in 1973," says Ruth Ferrero, a professor of Political Science at the Complutense University of Madrid.
It was there that Russia provided its energy resources as an alternative to those of the Middle East and consolidated its position as a supplier of natural gas.
