The Energy of Russia

This timely book analyses the status of hydrocarbon energy in Russia as both a saleable commodity and as a source of societal and political power. Through empirical studies in domestic and foreign policy contexts, Veli-Pekka Tykkynen explores the development of a hydrocarbon culture in Russia and the impact this has on its politics, identity and approach to climate change and renewable energy.

RUS

Книга «Энергия России: Углеводородная культура и изменение климата» рассказывает о том, как нефть и газ текут через российское общество. В работе исследуется и то, как зависимость от ископаемых источников энергии объясняется и оправдывается в глазах простых россиян и какую роль эти источники играют в политике страны. Хотя современная Россия полностью зависит от нефти и газа, страна имеет все предпосылки, чтобы стать крупной державой в области возобновляемой энергетики.

Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen is a Professor in Russian Environmental Studies at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland. He leads a research group focusing on energy and environmental policies, energy security, and political power in Russia. Professor Tynkkynen has extensive teaching experience at universities in Europe and Russia. He has delivered tens of public talks, is frequently giving expert statements for authorities as well as is an oft-asked commentator at media.ENG

Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen is a Professor in Russian Environmental Studies at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland. He leads a research group focusing on energy and environmental policies, energy security, and political power in Russia. Professor Tynkkynen has extensive teaching experience at universities in Europe and Russia. He has delivered tens of public talks, is frequently giving expert statements for authorities as well as is an oft-asked commentator at media.

RUS

Вели-Пекка Тюнккюнен — профессор экологических исследований Александровского института в Хельсинки. Он возглавляет научную группу, занимающуюся энергетической и экологической политикой, энергетической безопасностью и политической властью в России.

"This book examines the role of Russia’s energy resources in shaping not only its policy, polity and political processes, but its social identity and worldview, thereby exerting critical influence over Russia’s relations with the rest of the world. The main thread running through the book is that ‘geography has played a significant role in framing how the country has been governed —and it continues to do so’ (Chapter 1) in that ‘geographical space [is seen] as controllable flows of resources, not as a territory of communities’ (Chapter 2). Russia has been historically dependent on natural rather than human resources, with the vastness of Russia’s natural wealth located in its periphery, away from its urban centres. A spatiality and materiality approach thus argues that the natural and human resources of Russia are detached from one another, and that this detachment shapes Russia’s polity, understood as broad territorial governance."

— Diana Bozhilova, Europe-Asia Studies (2021)

"It is also possible that resources, and the wealth, power, and security they support, mitigate some of contemporary Russia’s worst tendencies. One can imagine that a federal state deprived of resource revenues and lacking physical infrastructure with centralizing effects would become more, not less authoritarian, and bellicose internationally."

— Boris Barkanov, The Russian Review (2021)