After decades of complete neglect, the issue of energy security has once again become a political priority for the West. Lacking internal resources and without pursuing an energy diversification policy, Italy depends to a large extent on a single country, first the USSR and then Russia. That since Vladimir Putin’s rise to power aims to become an “energy superpower” and to keep the Ukrainian question separate from international economic relations. To understand the importance of a forward-looking energy policy not only in times of crisis, the volume “The blackmail of Russian gas. Reasons and responsibilities “by Alberto Clò, economist, former Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade as well as Knight of the Grand Cross of Merit of the Republic, and former director of several listed companies, including Eni, Snam, Finmeccanica, Italcementi.
The book reconstructs the Russian events in the energy field from the Italian point of view, arguing that the massive dependence on Russian gas is attributable, more than for reasons of necessity, to our wicked choices of the past that have prevented us from containing this dependence. The volume, on newsstands until September 23 at a price of € 12.90, is in bookshops from August 29 for € 16.90 and in e-book format on all digital platforms for € 9.90.
“Carelessness is also the result of the scarce cultural tradition on these issues, with the exhaustion of the sometimes extraordinary experience of the research offices of large energy companies, one thinks above all of that of ENI; with the substantial extraneousness of the university world, excluding Bocconi and some Polytechnics; the scarce scientific research activity, at least until the most recent years; the structural paucity of the ministerial apparatuses. Coming to recent times, the dynamics of the markets and the reforms of the last two decades have also contributed – we read in the introduction signed by the author – the purpose of this short paper is to retrace the energy events, especially related to methane, in our country and in the rest of Europe over the past half century for two reasons. First: the duty to share the elements of knowledge that we believe we have about the dramatic events we are experiencing. Second: thus answering the initial question: how it was possible to have slipped into the head of the Russian lion. With a twofold objective: on the one hand, to understand the reasons and, on the other, to whom they should be held responsible. To avoid, looking to the future, on the one hand, to replicate the wrong choices and omissions of the past and, on the other, to draw the appropriate lessons from the tragic events we are going through ”.
There are fourteen chapters that make up the book: An addiction fruit of our choices; The liberal wave; The no regardless of the general indifference; The inevitability of the methane choice; Dependence on Moscow: a story that comes from afar; Vladimir Putin’s rise to power; Russia as “energy superpower”; Ukraine: Putin’s obsessive target; Europe turning the other way; German rule; Towards the abyss; The reaction of the western world; How are we doing ?; Learn the lesson: get rid of Russian gas.