Subservient Until They Are Not

Eastern Europe, Seeking Energy Security, Turns to Shale Gas, by Judy Dempsey New York Times, 11 May 2010

Underscores the division in Europe with regards to how to perceive Russia and its energy contributions to the Continent. The Eastern Europeans, aka those states with a pretty recent memory of Russian domination, are trying to prevent any repeat of this history.
It doesn't sound like these deposits in Poland will enable them to break themselves completely but it will certainly get Moscow's attention. Poland gets more than 90% of its energy from Russia, a figure that forces them into certain uncomfortable realities.
Ordinarily I like interdependent relationships, not wholly dependent ones. Natural resource dependency especially puts states in the subservient role. The US has to be involved in the Middle East to preserve energy security and the Europeans and Central Asians have to acquiesce to the Russians. Its not a relationship built on mutual dependency but rather forced addiction.