Currently, 72 percent of Mexico’s total natural gas requirement comes from imports . . . almost all of it from the United States, and mostly via pipelines. The country relies on the fuel primarily to generate electricity and for industrial purposes.

But in January, Mexican sources revealed that they were accelerating plans to double the country’s strategic gas storage due to concerns that Donald Trump might use their dependence on U.S. gas as leverage. [Natalia Siniawski, Reuters, June 21, 2025.]

And that must have been music to Vladimir Putin’s ears.

Because on Saturday, June 21st, the Russian Embassy in Mexico posted on X that Russia is ready to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Mexico and to share oil extraction and processing technologies. This would no doubt include financial and technical assistance to Mexico’s state oil company, Pemex, in its efforts to reactivate many of its wells that have been closed due to lack of funding and an aging infrastructure. [Id.]

Ignoring, for the moment, the economic ramifications of such a deal, I would find it more than a little discomfiting — particularly as someone who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 — to find the Putin government setting up camp on the territory of an adjacent neighbor that obviously is losing (or has already lost) faith in the United States as a long-time friend and trade partner.

Discomfiting . . . but not at all surprising.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/26/25