In the ongoing battle of wits, Russia and the West are out – oiling their energy arsenals – to achieve strategic objectives. In this rather crowded geopolitical chess board, with both sides bent upon using their energy assets, who is going to have the last hurrah remains a big if. The West seems to be working overtime to somehow constrain energy exports of Moscow – the lifeline of the Russian economy. A conscious effort to deprive Russia of its energy markets – by diversifying its major customers away – is definitely on. There has also been speculation that Washington has been conniving its allies in the OPEC – once again – to unleash a flood of oil into the market, so as to drive the markets down and bring Putin to his knees. Way back in the mid 80′s too, reports say, while the Afghan ‘jihad’ was at its peak, Washington deployed the same strategy, forcing Riyadh to open its taps and send the oil market prices to the floor. This made the war economically unbearable for Moscow. The once mighty superpower USSR, dependent on its oil income, could not sustain the sharp fall in market prices – and simply melted away.