But officials in Central and Eastern Europe fear that while profits from the pipeline, a joint venture between Gazprom and a trio of German and Dutch companies, will flow to Russian suppliers and German utilities, the long trod-upon countries once under the Soviet umbrella will become more vulnerable to energy blackmail.
Such tactics are hardly without precedent. A Swedish Defense Ministry-affiliated research organization has identified 55 politically linked disruptions in the energy supply of Eastern Europe since the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Does somebody have this report citing 55 cases of energy blackmail or politically influenced supply interruptions? I feel tremendously remiss in not having this posted on this blog... Perhaps the Swedes published this right when me and my pal Guy were taking off from Baikonur for a little tour, so I may have missed it.



The Swedish report "SWEDEN AND THE NEGP: A Pilot Study of the North European Gas Pipeline and Sweden’s Dependence on Russian Energy" can be found at http://www2.foi.se/rapp/foir1984.pdf. The link to the report is present in the New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/world/europe/13pipes.html?_r=2&hp).
Thanks, John. Didn't see that link!