Newspapers : 18th September (en)

Russia's Arctic energy plans. The Telegraph (en)
Moscow share trading remains suspended. Catherine Belton and Charles Clover, The FT (en)
Spain jails 21 ETA prison activists. The FT (en)
Merkel breaks ice with coalition partners. Gerrit Wiesmann, The FT (en)
Juncker sees Lisbon treaty delay. Tony Barber, The FT (en)

Georgia conflict forces Nato rethink. James Blitz, The FT (en)
"... But he said recent events in Georgia underscored the need for defence ministers to discuss frankly why many Nato members were not doing more to boost defence spending. “If we have an informal benchmark of 2 per cent GDP [gross domestic product] for defence spending and only six of the 26 Nato allies meet that informal benchmark, then there is something wrong with the alliance,” ... "

Brussels takes on Gazprom in Nigeria. Matthew Green, The FT (en)
" ... Renewed European interest in the project comes against a backdrop of mounting fears that Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, is intent on winning access to Nigeria’s vast gas reserves as part of a strategy to tighten its grip on energy supplies to Europe ...
... officials say the pipeline could supply 20bn cubic metres a year of gas to Europe by 2016. The bloc consumes some 300bn cubic metres a year but demand is projected to double by 2030, prompting a search for new sources from the Caspian Basin to Iraq and Qatar as domestic production declines. Sonatrach, the Algerian state oil company, backs the trans-Saharan pipeline scheme but a consortium to finance and build it has yet to emerge ... "

Now financial crisis takes toll in Russia . Shaun Walker, The Independent (en)
"This is very different from 1998, because Russia has built up substantial fiscal and monetary reserves over the past eight years."

Reliance on Russian gas 'threatens Britain's security'. Jon Swaine , The Telegraph (en)
"The country has been left vulnerable to "political blackmail", while "the health and security of the British economy is dependent on factors over which Britain has comparatively little influence," according to the Chatham House think-tank ...
... More than 40 per cent of Britain's electricity was fuelled by gas last year, compared to just half a per cent in 1990. The Government anticipates that by 2020 Britain may have to import 80 per cent of its gas ...
... They point out that unlike many European countries, Britain failed to secure a long-term, fixed price supply of gas when prices were low, meaning it now "must rely on increasingly volatile and expensive sources" on the open mark ...
...A European Energy Agency should be created, it adds, allowing countries to plan the interconnection of national grids ...