For subscribers
Russia’s mutiny underscores oil’s fragility
It may have been a one-day mutiny led by an obscure figure, but the event is a reminder of the critical vulnerabilities of our current energy system
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Russia is the world's second-largest exporter of crude oil, and largest holder of nuclear weapons.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Liam Denning
Last Friday morning, one of the more diverting headlines about Russia concerned one of its diplomats apparently squatting on a plot of land in Canberra, defying the Australian government in a dispute over a new embassy. Nonplussed, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismissed this minion of Moscow as “some bloke standing on a blade of grass”. Ah, Russia.
Within 24 hours, the headlines were instead debating a potential coup in the world’s second-largest exporter of crude oil (and largest holder of nuclear weapons). A further turn around the sun later, we were all left wondering what, if anything really, had happened.
