Russia's Energy Policies. National, Interregional and Global Levels.

• Author: Semikolenova, Yadviga

Russia's Energy Policies. National, Interregional and Global Levels, edited by PAMI AALTO (Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, MA, USA. 2012), 272 pages, ISBN 978-1-84980-029-7, Hardcover.

The book looks at formation and evolution of Russian oil and gas policies since 1990s, although the title suggests a broader scope of the volume. The authors discuss these policies on national (regional and federal), interregional (CIS, European and Eastern Asian space) and global levels. The book is aimed at the academic community and policymakers.

The book develops a multilevel structurationist model as a basis for the analysis in order to present a comprehensive view of how Russia's oil and gas policies have been evolving, (Chapter 2). The model is built around four structural dimensions of energy policy environment: resource geographic, financial, institutional and ecological. Energy policy players (government agencies, politicians, companies, NGOs, international financial institutions, etc.) operate and interact within these dimensions. Players' choices are guided by their interests (profit, power, energy security, environmental sustainability, etc). Players' interests may change over time in reaction to the choices of others and/or events that are beyond players' control. In the model, energy policies are formed and transformed as a result of complex interactions of players' evolving interests within the four structural dimensions. The articles collected in the volume use this model to explore development of Russia's oil and gas policies over the past 20 + years. The book also attempts to lay out issues that would shape Russian energy policies in the future.

The book is organized in four parts. Part I, "A New Approach to Russia's Energy Policy," discusses the value added of the book and presents the structurationist model used for analysis. In Chapter 1, "Introduction," Pami Aalto briefly reviews previous research on Russian oil and gas policies and positions the book within the existing literature space. The author emphasizes that the purpose of the book is to re-think Russian energy policies by using the insights provided by the structurationist model. In addition, this chapter gives a short summary of each article in the volume and explains how they all fit together to provide a complex picture of Russian oil and gas policies development, as guided by the model. The model itself is presented in Chapter 2 ("How Are Russian Energy Policies...