Fun with fracking

Not only is Russia carving off territory from Ukraine, Georgia, and other former Soviet "republics," but the thugs in Moscow are deploying fake protesters to make sure that other Eastern European countries remain tied to the Russian economy. Twice in recent months, first in Lithuania and then in Romania, the American oil company Chevron has leased land on which it intended to drill for shale gas. On both occasions, violent faux-environmental protests broke out, sufficient to shut down the projects.

What do Lithuanians and Romanians have to gain from fracking, if oil springs out of their own soil? Why, independence from Vladimir Putin's Gazprom, which supplies most of their energy needs at a price determined by Moscow. And what does Gazprom have to lose? Why, leverage over the Lithuanian and Romanian economies, hence their foreign policy, and by extension the economy and the foreign policy of every European nation.

“Everything that has gone wrong is from Gazprom,” says the mayor of the Romanian town that would have benefited from Chevron's investment.

“Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called nongovernmental organizations — environmental organizations working against shale gas — to maintain dependence on imported Russian gas,” says Anders Rasmussen, former secretary-general of NATO.

“It is crucial for Russia to keep this energy dependence,” says Iulian Iancu of the Romanian paraliment. “It is playing a dirty game.”

And what will Barack Obama, Angela Merkin, and other western leaders do about it? Nothing much, of that you can be sure.