On March 2, Russians are expected to elect a new head of state - most probably Dmitri Medvedev, a 42 years old lawyer seen as a Liberal minded politician. Will the Kremlin change mean anything for the relations between Russia and Romania? Most probably not, as after 1990 the various post-communist governments have been running policies of moving away from Russia, with negative effects in the economic sector but with significant gains in terms of security.
Romania has one big problem in its relations with Moscow: it is the European country that pays most per thousand of cubic meters of imported natural gas. This is due mainly to Romania's foreign policy of closing in to Euro-Atlantic structures and opposition to Russia, which made Russia to treat Romanian authorities coldly - and even with hostility some time.
While Romania pays some 376 USD/thousand of cubic meters of gas, a price that may rise to over 390 after April 1, other European countries are paying between 150-240 US dollars. A similar situation to Romania can only be found in Poland, which pays 340-350 US dollars/thousand of cubic meters.
Still, Romania is less dependent to Russian energy than other countries as it still has consistent natural gas reserves, allowing it to import below 40% of its needs from Russia.
Romania is part of another dispute between Russia and the West. Russia has been in an undeclared conflict with the EU and the US over energy resources, which is visible in the Balkans where to natural gas pipelines are in a draft phase: South Stream and Nabucco.
For Russia, the South Stream pipeline is a good tool to bring as many Eastern European countries under its wing of influence as possible and regain political influence in the region. For the European Union, Nabucco would be a good occasion to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.
