In the pipeline: A Russia weakened by natural-gas technology

Moscow has long used its fuel reserves to leverage foreign policy gains, but the US’s fracking and shale-gas boom and the growing, global LNG trade have changed all that, says Agnia Grigas

AS President Vladimir Putin reinforces Russia’s position as a global power, by means of nuclear sabre-rattling and military campaigns in Ukraine and Syria, the next US administration will have to contain him and co-operate with him.

That may become easier in the years ahead. The reason: The transformation of the world’s natural-gas markets is weakening Moscow’s economic toolkit. And that will make Putin’s pipeline politics — his use of natural resources for foreign-policy purposes — obsolete.