Michael McFaul talks on how Russia's oil and gas fields test relations with foreign investors

Russia controls more oil and gas reserves than any other single country and is the world's largest natural gas producer and exporter. The Russian Federation's temporary suspension of natural gas shipments to Ukraine last winter, together with plans for a sub-sea gas pipeline to Germany that will bypass the Eastern European countries, have heightened concerns about whether Putin's government might manipulate energy supplies to achieve larger political objectives. At the same time, foreign investors have had plenty of reason to worry about whether the government is playing fair financially, as it seeks to renegotiate long-term development contracts on terms more favorable to itself. The government's 'rather arbitrary way of renegotiating these deals is, I think, the central thing that haunts an otherwise fantastic economic story' of Russian rebound, said Michael McFaul.

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