ARTICLE: “Cheney Turns Up Rhetorical Heat on Putin: Vice President Criticizes Moscow’s Political Repression, Energy-Policy ‘Blackmail,’” by John D. McKinnon and Gregory L. White, Wall Street Journal, 5 May 2006, p. A4.

ARTICLE: “Cheney’s Kazakhstan Trip Focuses On Future U.S. Oil Investments,” by John D. McKinnon, Wall Street Journal, 6-7 May 2006, p. A7.

ARTICLE: “Russia’s energy minister hits back at Cheney,” by Neil Buckley, Financial Times, 8 May 2006, p. 1.

OP-ED: “Energy collaboration is free from Soviet ghosts,” by Viktor Khristenko, Financial Times, 8 May 2006, p. 11.

ARTICLE: “Gazprom Outlook Is Looking Bright, Despite Politics,” by Gregory L. White, Wall Street Journal, 5 May 2006, p. C1.

The pot calls the kettle black, in another display of calculated bad cop from Cheney on Russia.

Then the next day he sits down with our favorite Central Asian dictator in Kazakhstan, who’s apparently president for life (remember that when Putin takes the reins of Gazprom after leaving office) and sings his praises, like he’s done with the second-generation autocrat in Azerbaijan (Aliev).

The Russians don’t take it lying down, naturally, pointing out that after decades of giving energy away at below-market prices (for political control, of course), they now charge full-market prices.

Be careful what you ask for…

Again, I am heartened by Russia’s Trump-like push into downstream market segments in energy, something we never see out of the Middle East types. So politicians and strategists will fret over Russia’s growing “power” and “interests,” whereas investors will see a growth strategy that’s working.

Me, I see growing connectivity, not less, and so I approve and remain realistic about single-party states.