Conclusion

Abstract

This analysis began with a proposal to investigate the persistent differential in wholesale gas import prices within a group of neighbouring countries, each reliant on deliveries from Russia to meet annual demand. It did so by setting forward a research puzzle in Chapter 1, that being: why do some states under comparable conditions pay more for their gas imports than others, and which factors determine how equitable the terms under which the gas is priced and supplied are? The analysis proposed to focus on domestic structure (political parties in government and their policy drivers as derived from electoral agenda across the right/left spectrum) as an intervening variable in determining how dependent states were on a single dominant supplier, using this as a proxy for price, while also setting forward three related hypotheses to be tested using evidence collected and presented in the case study chapters 4 through to 7.