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POPS Kremlin: Battles Over Energy May Lead To Wars Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin, who is now Russia's powerful prime minister, often accused the West in the past of trying to expand its clout in the ex-Soviet nations and push Russia out of its traditional sphere of influence. The Kremlin has fiercely opposed NATO's plans to incorporate its ex-Soviet neighbors, Ukraine and Georgia. Russia currently controls most natural gas export routes out of the former Soviet region, but that grip is coming under growing pressure from China and the West. Intensifying rivalry for influence in the ex-Soviet region fomented tensions and helped stage the ground for last August's war between Russia and Georgia, which sits astride a key export pipeline carrying Caspian oil to Western markets. The war erupted when the U.S.-allied Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili sent troops to regain control over the separatist province of South Ossetia, which had close links with Russia.
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POPSRussia's Gazprom Says it Will Halt Gas Supply to Ukraine Gazprom accused Ukraine of blackmail on Wednesday, showing reporters a letter from Naftogaz Ukraine that appeared to threaten to confiscate Russian transit gas if there was no deal. Gazprom insists it has a valid transit agreement with Ukraine until the end of 2010. "Such a formulation is absolutely incorrect from both an economic and legal point of view," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said of Naftogaz's letter in comments broadcast on state TV. Ukraine would face "serious consequences" if it interfered with transit flows, he added. Gazprom said Naftogaz had been trying to hike the amount Russia pays it to transit gas through Ukraine. Gazprom said Ukraine owed it more than $2bn in unpaid bills for 2008, a figure that includes fines for late payment. It said a Russian-Ukrainian intermediary company has received $1.5bn from Ukraine but said the money had not yet reached its own accounts or been paid in full.
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POPSRussian leader Medvedev heading to Cuba, Venezuela The Russians are shrewd geopolitical players. They smell weakness in the new U.S. administration and are exploiting it even before Obama takes office. As I have said many times.. Obama is a lightweight and liberals are cowards. Our enemies will take advantage. They will chew him up and spit him out.
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POPSRussia Moving into U.S. Backyard Thanks to the arrogance of the Bush/Cheney foreign policy with Venezuela, we now have talk of nuclear reactors being built in Venezuela with Russia's assistance. Relations between U.S. and Venezuela have been deteriorating for years and as a result Russia is extending its reach around the world. If we had maintained better relations with Russia, this would not cause Americans much concern. But the reality is that we now have two oil rich nations trading nuclear technology and weapons that are not motivated to work with the U.S.
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POPSRussia Not Immune to American Influence Perhaps to undermine the Russian Bear and China, this crisis will benefit some of the architects of doom. If the energy market of Russia and China's relentless expansion are threatening American interest, ie, oil, so why not create a crisis that takes most down and rewards the few we all know?
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POPSRussia tries to raise oil production The prospering energy industry has been crucial to the career of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who as president oversaw an eight-year, oil-fueled economic boom which improved the lives of many ordinary Russians and helped restore national self-confidence. Declining oil production is bad news for a resource-based economy where revenues from the oil industry account for about 25 percent of GDP — and undermines Russia's efforts to position itself as an influential guarantor of global energy supplies, providing as it does some 30 percent of Europe's oil imports.
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POPSEU Leaders To Discuss Georgia As Russia Flouts West French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that Russia could face a deterioration of relations with Europe, Moscow's largest trading partner, including ties involving energy, Russia's main export. Most of the troops left Friday, but Moscow retained its peacekeepers in Kremlin-defined security zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia. "They are trying to keep instruments to suffocate Georgia and create further trouble at any moment," said Giga Bokeria, Georgia's deputy foreign minister. In Ukraine, meanwhile, pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko said the conflict in Georgia showed his country needed to accelerate its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, speaking at a military parade in honor of Ukraine's independence. Russia opposes the idea of Ukraine joining NATO, which the Kremlin views as an anti-Russian bloc.
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POPSBP bends over for Putin Russia needed another bidder, so they brought in BP. Here’s what’s going to happen: BP bids, BP loses to Rosneft, BP magically gets a favorable contract soon after. The good news is that at least Putin is still putting up some form of facade to appear legitimate instead of just taking the assets outright. Ultimately he's just putting the final pieces in place for when he steps down from running Russia from the Kremlin to running Europe from Gazprom.
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POPSAn East vs West showdown brewing over energy This is yet another example of how imperative it is for the U.S. to be pushing forward with an aggressive alternative energy plan that at least rivals its prior committment to putting a man on the moon. Via Skwirlinator's earlier clipmark http:// http://www.clipmarks.com/clipmark/7C958E18-FEEF-4929-8239-F49F7BDE338C/
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POPScome back of russia here an excerpt from the article: "The global order is re-dividing into roughly two de facto blocs - one has the US at its core and the other has Russia-China at its core. Energy is the major dividing line between the two blocs, and as desperation for control of strategic energy resources increases rapidly, so will the sharpness of the dividing line between the two blocs. With energy thus serving as a primary catalyst, the resource-rich Eurasian bloc is attaining significantly more gravitational pull than the American bloc."
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