Vladimir Putin and the energy weapon

"The gas dispute is only the latest example of how the countries that used to be bundled together as 'the West' - and now usually mean the US and its protégés - have applied a glaring double standard in their condemnation of Russia," writes columnist Mary Dejevsky. (...) "It is all very well for Ukraine, the US, and other energy-poor countries to object to the use of natural resources as a political weapon, but what about the deterrent effect of superior armed forces, superior firepower, the power of the dollar? Is it any more laudable to use such advantages as weapons? And what about the rules of the free market that the US and others extol so highly?"

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