This paper will take a detailed look at Russia’s energy transit policy in the Baltic Sea region. This paper will attempt to answer the question whether Russia’s preference to avoid transit countries is a reflection of a greater strategy to increase their power and security in the region. Specifically this paper will use four case studies to establish and analyze Russia’s energy transit policy. Firstly the Nord Stream pipeline, secondly the construction of new ports in Ust-Luuga and Primorsk, thirdly the 2003 closure to an oil pipeline in the port city Venstpils Latvia, and lastly the closure to an oil pipeline in Lithuania in 2006. These case studies will give us solid understanding of Russian energy transit policy in many aspects. Particularly it will allow us to contrast and compare how Russia deals with small secondary powers in the region, the Baltic states, with how Russia deals with Germany, another major power in the region. This paper concludes that Russia is using energy transit to minimalize and bypass secondary powers in the region to increase its own power and security.
