Exploring the secrets of global energy trade

A new book argues that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being underestimated in costly ways by the United States and its Western allies, especially in one critical sector: energy. In this book, analyst Marin Katusa makes the case that Putin is making the most Russia's new role as the world's leading energy supplier - the country exports more oil than the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq combined; has the world's largest natural gas reserves; and is the top uranium exporter - to reassert its global importance.

Just recently, an agreement was reached that Russia would provide Ukraine with heating energy for the winter. This is just the latest move in a long-running dispute between the two nations. But the implications of Russia's growing influence in terms of energy reach even further than its immediate neighbors, he writes in The Colder War.

Russia already supplies much of the European Union's energy, controls pipelines and other transportation means for oil and natural gas throughout Eurasia, and is the world's leading supplier of the materials needed by all nuclear power plants. This gives Russia considerable influence over scores of nations, and the impact it has on its relations with others - such as the United States - can't be ignored.