Moscow’s oil pricing dispute with the Government of Saudi Arabia, a domestic U.S. oil boom, and a fall in global oil demand since the COVID19 outbreak have damaged Russia’s oil industry. But its influence over the global oil market seems only set to increase, just one of the resource sectors Russia is seeking to dominate in the 21st Century. Oil: As the worldwide response to the pandemic was heating up in early March 2020, Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s two leading oil exporters, launched a pricing war for their oil on international markets. The Kremlin had ignored Saudi demands to OPEC members and other oil-producing/exporting states to cut production to stabilize prices, causing Saudi Arabia to increase its production and send prices lower. Because Saudi Arabia can produce and export oil for a much lower price than Russia, analysts were left pondering the wisdom behind Russia’s brinksmanship. The […]