Broadsword, In part, you are correct, but what I was referring to was the coalescence of oil and state policy. Not the effect of that involvement on the individual consumer. The Pravda article, written in 1999, set the stage publicly of what was Russia’s intent. It announced that the state needed to secure itself and its mineral resources. In that same year, Putin publishes his dissertation. That dissertation is now the current policy of Russia.
If you read the paper I linked:
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/fil...t_english1.pdf you will see what he accomplished is quite extraordinary. He or his base realized that the multi-national Russia oil companies were not interested in the welfare of state, but rather themselves. The paper is insight in understanding our current situation, policy influence, and the resulting conflict.