No wonder Russian president Dmitry Medvedev gave such a sour look when Barack Obama shook his hand.  A consortium of nations led by the US has cracked the Russian monopoly on natural-gas sales to Europe with a new pipeline in Turkey.  The deal, which had stalled until the Russians cut off deliveries during the winter in a price dispute, will route energy supplies from the Caucasus to Austria:

Officials from six countries gathered Monday in Turkey and signed a deal to build a U.S.-backed pipeline, aimed at breaking Russia’s near-monopoly on natural gas supplies to Europe.

The proposed Nabucco pipeline would run from Turkey’s eastern border, through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, to a key gas terminal in Baumgarten, Austria.

Germany is also a partner in the deal, which is being signed in the Turkish capital, Ankara.

Russia controls the current network of pipelines that supply Europe with natural gas.

Russia hopes to build a new empire based on energy production that will dominate Europe, and perhaps Asia as well.  Its disputes with Belarus and Ukraine over pricing and rights of passage, and especially Russia’s attack on Georgia, show how critical this monopoly is to Vladimir Putin’s grand strategy for Russian hegemony.  After all, Gazprom — the state-owned distributor for natural gas — employs a former German head of state and cabinet minister, a demonstration of Russian influence in Europe whose significance few missed.

A new set of pipelines to eastern and central Europe will shift the balance of power from Moscow to the EU, at least to some degree.  Europe will need both suppliers, but now can afford to play the Nabucco consortium against Moscow to get better deals — and to remove the threat of political extortion from their dependence on Russian gas.  Putin will no longer have that as a trump card.