ABSTRACT
A key role that energy security plays in Russia’s national security strategy has been determined by a combination of factors of structural, positional and relational nature. Starting with its global position, Russia is the biggest producer and the world’s top exporter of natural gas, the third biggest producer and the second largest exporter of oil, and the sixth biggest producer and the third biggest exporter of coal. Geopolitics forms an essential background in examinations of energy security for two main reasons: first, because both address the problem of resource determination of political agency, and second, because both assess power distribution in the world system of states. Geopolitical analysis focuses on spatial aspects of power distribution in the world and on geography as a resource in, or an impediment to, power accumulation and dispensation in international relations. Privatizing governments all over the post-Soviet Eurasia had soon found themselves hostage to business interests.
