Russia is considered to be the first European country to be affected by oil production, after the first oil well was drilled in Baku on the shores of the Caspian Sea in 1846, 13 years before Colonel Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in the United States in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. It is worth mentioning here that the Rothschild and Nobel families, which are two of the most prestigious mercantile European families at the time, secured the rights to produce and export this Russian oil; this is according to the book by the Lebanese economist Marwan Iskandar, recently published in Beirut in English. The book is concerned with the Russian economic, political and cultural history prior to the establishment of the Soviet Union, and the economic and social progress in Russia following the fall of the communist regime. In his valuable study about the growing role of Baku and the Caspian Sea in the period that followed, Mr. Iskandar adds that by 1880, the oil production from this area dominated most of the supplies to Europe, in addition to consolidating the influence of the Rothschild and Nobel families in the early stages of Russian oil production. In 1895 however, this picture could have almost entirely changed, when the American “Standard Oil” Company sought to sign an agreement with the two European families that would have placed the global oil production under the control of one company, and sharing influence with the two families. The Russian government however, objected to the agreement at the time, which was thus not passed. Of course, the author did not limit his study to historical narrations, but also pointed out in this regard that in 1988, and shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Soviet production rates reached around 12.50 million barrels per day. He compares this rate to the current Russian production rate of 908 million barrels per day. When analyzing the Russian oil wealth, the rates of natural gas production should also be mentioned, as Russia has the largest global natural gas reserves estimated at about 1700 trillion cubic meters, while it is also the largest gas exporting country. In fact, Russia currently supplies about 41 percent of the natural gas imported by Europe, while European imports of Russian oil have grown from about 12 percent of total European imports in 2008 to about 29 percent at present. As such, petroleum secures around 64 percent of Russia's hard-currency earnings. Moreover, the contemporary Russian oil policy cannot be discussed without also tackling the dispute over gas prices between Moscow and Kiev and indeed, the author elaborated on this use, its background and ramifications. For instance, Iskandar mentioned that Russia does not conceal its intention to use its energy exports as a pliable tool of its foreign policy. Nonetheless, he points out the fact that the cheap price at which Ukraine procures natural gas from Russia goes back to when Ukraine was a part of the Socialist bloc. As such, this price was subsidized and preferential merely for historical political reasons, which cannot be defended today on economic grounds. Furthermore, the author did not fail to notice the pilfering and fraud that took place in the oil sector during the term of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and how the then Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, for instance, garnered 200 million dollars in questionable business deals in the Russian oil sector at the time, prompting Russian courts to issue a warrant for her arrest later on. Mr. Iskandar then discussed at length the pilfering that characterized the oil sector in the Russian Federation under Yeltsin around the year 2000, while providing a wealth of information about this subject. He also elaborated on how President Vladimir Putin managed later to return the control of Russian oil to the state, beginning with the battle of dismantling the «Yukos Oil» empire, founded by the young billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Meanwhile, one of the most important chapters in this book was the exposition on the Russian-Saudi oil relations, and their impact on global oil markets. It should be noted in this “oil review” that Mr. Iskandar's book was not limited to oil or economic issues. Rather, it was full of very useful analyses and backgrounds about the culture of history-rich Russia. What also distinguishes this book is the effort made by its author in gathering analyses and information through the many interviews he conducted with senior officials in Russia and Europe. It is noteworthy to mention here that this book is already being translated into both Arabic and Russian, which will allow Arab readers to enrich their knowledge on Russia and its culture and its economy, and would also allow Russian readers to learn about their country's history and economy through the eyes of a prominent Arab writer. In spite of the availability of adequate energy resources in the five permanent member countries of the Security Council, they all still import energy, with the exception of Russia: The United States has adequate reserves of oil and gas, but despite that, a large fraction of its energy is still being imported. In addition, while Britain has the North Sea oil reserves, it also imports both gas and electricity. Also, and although France relies its own resources for the production of electricity in its nuclear plants, exporting a part of this electricity to the UK, the French still import both oil and gas, and in China, where there are some oil reserves present, much of their oil and gas requirements are imported.. Russia remains the only country among the five superpowers that exports large amounts of oil while not importing any energy, which gives it a major strategic advantage. *. Mr. Khadduri is an energy expert
