Russia, seeking a new place in the global architecture, is pursuing an increasingly assertive foreign policy. President Barack Obama and his Administration will need to tread carefully whenconfronting the mix of great-power anti-status quo revisionism andresentment, recent symptoms of which include the Russian-Georgianwar, energy conflicts in Europe, Russian pressure against Ukraine,and consolidation of Russian power in Eurasia.
With the attack on YUKOS, the ex-KGB faction in the Kremlin hasreverted to state-led repression against private capital andindependent power centers. A crackdown on the independent media hasbeen going on for three years. The U.S. should send a strong signalto President Vladimir Putin that such policies may cost MoscowAmerica's good will and cause damage in tens of billions ofdollars.
This is the two decade-long story of how the oil majors stuck with Putin, helping to fund the Russian government despite growing evidence of the regime’s violence, and how they enabled the development of climate-wrecking oil and gas projects despite knowing about the impact of fossil fuels