No, the enemy is Gazprom, which uses minor formal offenses to turn earlier written contracts to its advantage via crude blackmail - all the more annoying when such blackmail works... and when it is a State entity that beats a private player, because it creates a dangeorus precedent. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
I'm not so sure that Mittal is accepted completely. But even if he is, the difference between him and Gazprom is that Gazprom is jostling directly for turf with Big Oil, and that's not acceptable.
It's a strategic issue being framed as a betrayal of laissez faire economic principles.
Which is of course ridiculous, because the Russians are never going to say 'Yes, of course we realise I have betrayed the spirit of Adam Smith. We will hand over whatever gas and oil you want at knock-down prices because you have shamed us into it.'
What's bizarre is that the City seems to believe that if it shouts loudly about protectionism, etc, etc, this might actually happen.
That's where the tribalism comes in. Like the US, the City seems to have no ability to understand that it may not be the only game in town, and that it won't necessarily always get its own way.
