RUSSIA-EUROPE: Using energy to gain power: Russia is working to control European markets through a network of strategically placed pipelines.

Tribune foreign correspondent Alex Rodriguez writes ...

TBILISI, Georgia, Aug 17, 2008 (Chicago Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- TBILISI, Georgia -- Russia exerts its aggressive, ever-growing confidence on the global stage in many ways. The starkest example has been its relentless campaign of bombing raids and troop incursions into its tiny southern neighbor, U.S.-allied Georgia.
But at a time when its relations with the West are at their iciest in years, the Kremlin is increasingly flexing its geopolitical might with another weapon few could have imagined during the decades-long Cold War: pipelines, conduits of energy and clout that Russia is deftly maneuvering in pincer-like fashion around Europe.

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