How should the world, and in particular the European Union, deal with an increasingly assertive Russia? The case for a joint response to Russian oil and gas imperialism is overwhelming. Yet Germany and others prefer to deal with Russia on a bilateral basis, often undermining the wider EU interest in the process. If handled badly, Russia?s energy diplomacy has the potential to divide the EU just as much the US-led war against Iraq did three years ago.

Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, last week raised the issue in a characteristically blunt speech in Vilnius. He accused Russia of using oil and gas as ?tools of intimidation and blackmail?. His speech was interpreted as a hardening of the US position ahead of the St Petersburg Group of Eight summit in July. Mr Cheney?s remarks were met with some alarm inside Russia, although they hardly made the news headlines in continental Europe.