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| Limassol, Feb. 28, 2014: Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades (C) gets a tour of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov |
Fiona Mullen
In the past few weeks there have been three articles in well-respected media outlets suggesting that Russia is trying to prevent a solution to the Cyprus problem. The first was published by Politico on January 12, the second by Bloomberg on January 16 and the third by the New York Times on February 5.
The general argument is that Russia is actively undermining efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem, which they tie to its energy and security interests, and that Cypriots are worried about this. Setting aside the uncanny timing of the articles, these assumptions are rather tenuous for a number of reasons.
The energy angle
First, let’s take the idea that Russia fears competition from Eastern Mediterranean gas. Russia has 1,140 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of proven natural gas reserves—the second largest in the world after Iran—according to the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Eastern Mediterranean gas finds in the past few years in Israel, Egypt and Cyprus (not all of which are proven) amount to around 70 tcf.
