In the ever-turning world of oil, natural gas and geopolitics, it seems that Russia keeps coming up short – in spite of being the world’s leading oil producer and Europe’s top natural gas supplier. Even more troubling for Moscow is that much of its recent problems come from the U.S., which has hit the country’s oil and gas industry hard. The U.S. and its Western partners first levied sanctions against Russia, including its energy sector, over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, tightening restrictions on major Russian state banks and corporations, including blacklisting dozens of Russian officials, oil and gas industry executives and energy firms. Russian banks and Russian energy giant Gazprom’s ability to secure long term funding in U.S. dollars have also largely been blocked since sanctions were first enacted. Adding more pain, the U.S. and EU also banned exports of services and technology to Russian state oil firms […]