Gas pains [commentary]

Russia expert Marshall Goldman has dubbed the country a ¿ petrostate,¿ but with all due respect, that¿s somewhat misleading; Russia is really a gigantic natural-gas company backed by a huge nuclear arsenal and an increasingly proficient, conventional military [see The Data, in this issue]. Though it¿s also a top oil producer, it uses almost all of its oil itself and has little influence on the world market. But with its seemingly boundless gas reserves, Russia is in a position to dominate the Eurasian market for at least a generation to come.