Russia does not want to have her oil and gas exports threatened by some of the transit countries, in particular Poland, ... This will increase the volume of Russian gas exports to Europe and will to some extent increase the security of those exports.

There is a lot of potential for China to import more crude oil from Russia.

The whole oil and gas industry in Russia is strongly undervalued and will stay so for quite a long time. The Russian companies are much cheaper based on reserves.

France and Russia have oil companies and interests in Iraq. They should be told that if they are of assistance in moving Iraq toward decent government, we'll do the best we can to ensure that the new government and American companies work closely with them. If they throw in their lot with Saddam, it will be difficult to the point of impossible to persuade the new Iraqi government to work with them.

Still, Russia and Saudi Arabia are the ballgame in world oil production. People got worried that if the Russians could do that with natural gas they might do it with oil.

We want Russia in the WTO, but they must first abide by the rules and obligations.