Power Play

The incendiary history of Russia’s fossil fuel empire, revealing how energy has been the Kremlin’s most critical lifeline and most potent weapon

Historians have long regarded 1989 as the most significant turning point of our times. Soviet-dominated regimes fell one after another. Russia briefly seemed on course to embrace democracy, but veered toward authoritarianism within just a few years. The Kremlin’s return to aggressive imperialism was only possible thanks to oil and gas.

Power Play tells the story of how energy became a key to Russia’s success on the world stage. From the early days of the Cold War, energy permitted Soviets to bribe adversaries and keep allies docile. Once the Soviet economic model began showing signs of malaise, energy helped keep the USSR alive. It powered great factories that employed Soviet workers and warmed Soviet citizens in the depth of winter. It was sold for desperately needed hard currency that plugged holes in the Soviet budget. And, after the Soviet Union's collapse, it provided Vladimir Putin with a much-needed war chest that he used to weather Western sanctions.

Dramatically reframing Soviet and post-Soviet history into a new, cohesive narrative, Power Play reveals that contemporary Russia can only be understood as an empire sustained by oil and gas.