...Russia has used the energy card in breaking through the cordon sanitaire assembled by Washington. Three major developments in the past month have brought Russia back into the Balkans. First came what an alarmed American specialist called Moscow's "Anschluss of Austria". The reference was to Putin's visit to Vienna on May 23-24, which has laid the foundation for an Austrian role on Europe's energy map as a "hub" for natural gas sourced from Russia.

Putin went to Vienna straight from the tense summit with the European Union in the Volga River city of Samara on May 17-18. Moscow was peeved that the EU was nit-picking, lacked any coherent Russia policy, and was often being manipulated by Washington.


Moscow felt it far more productive to concentrate on building up its partnership with individual EU countries at the bilateral level. At any rate, Putin found a very receptive partner in Vienna. Austria, of course, has a 40-year history of close energy cooperation with Russia. Last September, Austria entered a long-term contract with Russia whereby Gazprom will meet 80% of Austria's gas requirements of 9 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually during the next 20-year period.

During Putin's visit, the first section of a massive gas-storage facility near Salzburg was commissioned, which has an overall capacity of 2.4bcm. The facility is being built at a cost of 260 million euros (nearly US$350 million) by Gazprom and, upon completion in 2011, will be the second-largest underground gas-storage facility in Central Europe.