Bombast might not be genetic material, but it certainly seems to be part of the DNA of Russian political and business leaders. It clearly characterized stubby, shoe-pounding Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev when he famously told Western ambassadors, “We will bury you,” more than 50 years ago. And it seems that Khrushchev’s bluster has been inherited by Alexei Miller, chief executive of Gazprom, the Russian natural gas exporter that operates largely under government control (read: monopoly). Miller, speaking in 2013 about the impact of gas from US shale fields, predicted that shale was a “bubble that will burst very soon. We are skeptical about shale gas. We don’t see any risks (to us) at all.” (source)
