Richard Heinberg,a professor from Santa Rosa, California argues that a newlydeclassified CIA document shows that the U.S. used oil prices asleverage against the economy of the Soviet Union:
The Memorandum predicts an impending peak in Soviet oil production'not later than the early 1980s' (the actual peak occurred in 1987 at12.5 million barrels per day, following a preliminary peak in 1983 of12.5 Mb/d). 'During the next decade,' the unnamed authors of thedocument conclude, 'the USSR may well find itself not only unable tosupply oil to Eastern Europe and the West on the present scale, butalso having to compete for OPEC oil for its own use.' The Memorandumpredicts that the oil peak will have important economic impacts: 'Whenoil production stops growing, and perhaps even before, profoundrepercussions will be felt on the domestic economy of the USSR and onits international economic relations.'