World press on Russia's conflict with Western powers (September 11, 2014)

Foreign Policy published article headlined "The Empire Strikes Back: Europe and the United States are ratcheting up sanctions on Russia, but Putin is not standing still" devoted to Russia's conflict with the US and its allies.

"As the United States and European Union prepare another round of sanctions on Russia, Moscow appears to have unsheathed its energy weapon to strike back, targeting European countries that are supplying Ukraine with natural gas in the wake of a Russian embargo," the author of article, Keith Johnson writes.

"The United States outlined a slate of sweeping measures against Russia's finance, defense, and energy sectors on Friday. In addition to tightening capital markets curbs on big Russian banks and energy firms, the latest measures will also, as promised, bar U.S. companies from sharing energy expertise with Russian companies trying to coax oil out of difficult locations. U.S. companies will have two weeks to wind down operations with Russian companies," Foreign Policy cites US officials as saying.

"The measures are "designed to effectively shut down this type of oil exploration and production activity," a senior Obama administration official said," the author informs.

The journalist notes that, earlier, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. steps targeting Russia's energy sector would go further than the technology trade bans announced in July by barring U.S. oil companies from helping Russia tap its vast but hard-to-reach energy resources. That could imperil multibillion-dollar projects that Russian firms hope to carry out alongside the likes of Exxon Mobil, BP, and others, Johnson informs

"One other casualty from the new sanctions could be one of Vladimir Putin's pet projects: the South Stream pipeline, meant to pipe Russian gas to Europe while bypassing Ukraine. The new measures will crimp Gazprom's ability to raise money to complete the expensive pipeline project, which has already been delayed by the European Union due to the Ukraine imbroglio," he writes.

"If fully implemented, the new restrictions would take aim at, among other things, Russia's future ability to offset declining oil production from mature Siberian fields with exotic new discoveries. Cooperation with Western oil firms such as BP and Exxon Mobil are key to Russia's ability to tap oil fields in the frozen north or far offshore. Big oil firms had said they would keep working in the Russian market, despite the annexation of Crimea and a slate of lesser sanctions on Russia," Johnson writes.