From The L.A. Times:On the surface, the battle between Russia and Ukraine that has choked off natural-gas supplies to much of Europe in the dead of a cold winter is a purely commercial dispute. Deeper down, it's something more menacing -- part of what looks like a calculated strategy by Russia to regain influence over countries that were once part of the Soviet empire and to neutralize European opposition.
Gazprom, Russia's state gas monopoly, is as much a policy arm of the Kremlin as it is a company. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is its former chairman. It owns a big Russian media company and operates it as a government propaganda arm. It is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and accounts for a quarter of Russia's budget. The government controls a majority of its board, and though Gazprom's management decision-making structure is murky, most analysts believe the man who really calls the shots is Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, who once argued in a scholarly paper that Russia's energy resources were the key to promoting its national interests.
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