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Are the EU’s concerns about gas imports from Russia rational? / Yuri Yegorov, Faculty of Business, Economics and Statistics at the University of Vienna , EU Energy Policy blog, 22/05/2012 http://www.energypolicyblog.com/2012/05/22/are-the-eus-concerns-about-gas-imports-from-russia-rational/May 22nd, 2012 by Yuri Yegorov, Faculty of Business, Economics and Statistics at the University of Vienna Over the last few years we have been observing an irrational political confrontation between European and Russian energy strategies, something not even heard of at the times of the USSR. So let’s look at the irrationality of these confrontations from an economic perspective. Yes, Russia and Europe participate in a kind of monopolistic-monopsonistic relationship (where each side either has control of supply or control of demand) – these are naturally prone to debates about the division of the economic surplus, as both sides want to get the best possible deal out of it. But it should be possible even in these circumstances to come to some kind of rational equilibrium, where both sides benefit equally...