("Shell is being forced by the Russian government to hand over its controlling stake in the world's biggest liquefied gas project,” the Guardian reports, provoking fresh fears about the Kremlin's willingness to use the country's growing strength in natural resources as a political weapon.” The Times has more here.)

BusinessWeek has an interesting piece this week on the Russian economy and the growth of direct foreign investment in Russia since 2002. With high oil prices, the Russian economy has been humming along, but so has the Kremlin's appetite for gobbling up private companies.

The Kremlin has taken control of some two dozen Russian companies since 2004, including oil assets from Sibneft and Yukos, as well as banks, newspapers, and more. Despite his sporadic support for pro-market reforms, Putin has backed national champions such as energy concerns Gazprom and Rosneft. The private sector's share of output fell from 70% to 65% last year, while state-controlled companies now represent 38% of stock market capitalization, up from 22% a year ago. "The tendency that really worries us," says William Tompson, the oecd's senior Russia economist, "is the big increase in state property."

And the Kremlin hasn’t been shy about employing its property to advance political ends. Putin has used government-controlled energy companies, for example, to punish neighboring Ukraine and Georgia for not kowtowing to the Kremlin.