Elayne Jude, Great North News Services, reports

Russian Prime Minister Putin signed a clutch of energy deals with Japan during a 24 hour stopover Wednesday 13th May. On the same day President Medvedev announced Russia's new security strategy, a keystone of which is Russia's reiteration of her claims to Arctic territory thought to contain vast oil resources, and her right to use military means as necessary in support of those claims.

By Guy Anderson, Research Associate, U K Defence Forum

The burden of fuel and logistics demands on militaries are as old as warfare itself.

"Throughout history, energy has been the limiting factor is all military operations," wrote Dr Douglas Kirkpatrick, manager of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) biofuels programme in 2007.

"Whether it was Roman armies foraging for supplies or General George S Patten running out of fuel as he dashed across France.

By Peter Zeihan

At the time of this writing, the natural gas crisis in Europe was entering its 13th day.

While the topic has only penetrated the Western mind as an issue in recent years, Russia and Ukraine have been spatting about the details of natural gas deliveries, volumes, prices and transit terms since the Soviet breakup in 1992. In the end, a deal is always struck, because Russia needs the hard currency that exports to Europe (via Ukraine) bring, and Ukraine needs natural gas to fuel its economy. But in recent years, two things have changed.