Tsar Of All The Oil

It may be that Putin aspires not to be a new Stalin but to be a new Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the flamboyant but shrewd Saudi who acted as world oil czar in the 1970s.

The United States should not encourage the Saudification of Russia by seeking to guarantee energy security while ignoring internal repression and lack of reform. The attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and other events have amply demonstrated that one Saudi Arabia treated like that is more than enough.

Jim Hoagland, writing about Putin's oil and energy ambitions, in the Washington Post (free reg. required).