Our pointless attempt at containing Russia has failed
These two headlines came out the exact same day.
Our opposition to Russian pipelines had nothing to do with what was best for Europe. It was always about containing Russia.
If they couldn't get their products to market then we could squeeze their economy, and eventually make them bend a knee.
At least that was the idea. It didn't work.
This happened two weeks ago.
Russia switched on an enormous gas pipeline to China worth billions of dollars Monday, affirming increasingly close economic and political ties between the two countries.
Named the "Power of Siberia," the pipeline runs more than 8,100 kilometers (5,000 miles) across the two countries, according to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua, and will deliver 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually by 2024. It will be operated by Russia's state-owned company Gazprom.
...
A 30-year deal was signed by Putin and Xi in 2014, and while a final figure has not been announced, it is believed to be worth more than $400 billion.
That is huge. Both from an economic and a political calculus.
One week earlier this happened.
Russian giant Gazprom has said that the start-up and commissioning process is in its final stage at the TurkStream gas pipeline, which is going to be brought into operation before the end of 2019, lngworldnews.com says.
...The first string of TurkStream is intended for Turkish consumers, while the second string will deliver gas to southern and southeastern Europe. Each string will have a throughput capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas per year
What Nord Stream and Turkstream does is allow Russia to avoid using Ukrainian pipelines to ship gas to Europe. So Russia no longer has to pay billions of dollars a year in transit fees to Ukraine if Ukraine has a fascist, anti-Russian government.
No longer will Russia be forced to fund it's enemies.
What Power of Siberia does is tie the economic interests of Russia and China together, totally separate from American finance.
Meanwhile, when no one is paying attention, India is getting closer to Russia.
All of this happened in just the last three weeks.
Comments
Putin has said he will keep the Ukraine pipeline
This gives Ukraine three options:
4. Abandon Greenhouse Gas - CH4
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Shutdown coal mining operations
and repair 75-50 year old leaky gas pipelines at a cost 3-4 billion $US?
Who is going to invest that kind of money in Ukraine? Ukraine had a chance of that before the Maidan coup. Ukraine is on it's own now. The US was willing to spend 5 billion to tear Ukraine away from Russia. But now that is fait accompli, Ukraine is on it's own. But it can raise some money by selling it's land to Monsanto and taking out more usurious IMF loans. Countries should never bite the hands that feed it.
The new Ukraine president is not anti-Russian
Putin can work with him.
If it wasn't for him Putin would just cut off Ukraine.
The Russophobes in Washington
and the ultra-nationalists in Kiev won't allow Zelensky to play nice with Putin. The Minsk agreement is all but dead right now. Putin is not going to agree to the disarmament of Donbas and return of Crimea as a prerequisite to the Minsk deal.
He is not required to do anything for the Minsk deal. Neither is Germany nor France. It's just between Kiev and the Donbas to work things out. Putin can let it ride for a decade at little cost to Russia. He has Crimea, Nordstream and Turk-stream.
Ukraine is a money pit - it needs US grant money and IMF loans to stay afloat. Russia is still Ukraine's largest trading partner with exports twice as much as imports. Europe and the US don't need what Ukraine produces other than cheap labor. The most valuable item Ukraine has for sale now is their dirt which was made available this year as a prerequisite for those US controlled IMF loans.
Not totally true
Besides the fact that the fighting in the Donbas has sent tens of thousands of refugees into Russia, Ukraine and Russia have cultural and historic ties.
Russia would be much better off with a strong and friendly Ukraine.
Putin has welcomed Ukrainian refugees
He is willing to issue a resident permit/passport to any Russian speaking Ukrainian. Thousands of Ukrainians go to Russia to earn a paycheck.
Who's fault was it for screwing things up in Ukraine? Who spent 5 billion dollars engineering a coup in Ukraine? Who brought in snipers to kill people on both sides of the conflict? Who started killing Russian speaking people in Odessa and the Donbass? What Donbass wants is the same deal the Province of Quebec has with the rest of Canada (or at the least the same relationship that American states have with Washington).
Crimea never wanted to be part of Ukraine. They have tried for decades to get a referendum to gain a modicum of independence from Ukraine. Kiev ignored them and they just got scraps.
Look at Crimea now.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRWcLwrYN10]
Millions?
I have seen figures of two or so million refugees from Ukraine to Russia, but not from Donbass but from the rest of Ukraine. A lot were ethnic Russians who didn't like living with the fascists ruling them. A lot were young Ukrainians avoiding the draft. Also, there are a lot of Ukrainians in Poland and Western Europe looking for work.
Proceeding on the pipeline wars, in 2011 Syria signed a pact with Iraq and Iran to move the latter two's natgas to the Mediterranean. That's at least one economic reason for the US to support the destruction of the infrastructure of those countries.
Meanwhile, at the beginning of the decade I remember a story about LNG terminals being built along the US's Atlantic Coast for the exporting of the excess of natgas from fracking. Of course, shipping LNG across the Atlantic is a much more expensive proposition than turning on a pipeline from Iran or Russia. Alas, that pipeline won't be built any time soon.
Think about it. Bombing civilians, destroying cities and industries, stirring up ethnic strife, waging war with extremist proxies, all to sell natgas to Europe.
Depending on what's left under the North Sea, I can't foresee much of a market for US petroleum in Europe besides Britain and maybe Poland, who actually built an LNG terminal.
Obama sure screwed over Ukrainians didn't he?
Yes it was corrupt before the violent coup, but at least people could live nicely and be warm during winter. People have frozen during the winters since and many of them had to go back to work because of the damn IMF loans that hurt big time.
Congress said that they had to put sanctions on Nordstream because of Russia aggression. One article listed all of the aggressions they have done.
Invaded Iraq.
Supported the Honduran coup.
Invaded Libya
Invaded Syria....well you get the drift. Sorta like how Iran has destabilized the Middle East as pompous Pompeo is saying. It's the effing hypocrisy!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Pipelayer Allseas to stop pipe laying
Russia had bought their own pipe layer, the AKADEMIK CHERSKIY (built in 2015), in anticipation of the sanctions. Not as large and fast but it will finish the project by the end of 2020.
Does congress have egg on their faces?
'Gas War' Averted: Russia & Ukraine Agree To Crucial Transit Deal, Defying The Hawks
Hopefully this will help the people in Ukraine and lower their gas prices. The amount of damage we did to them is unconscionable. Meanwhile Barry is flying around the world making tons of money for doing what he was told to. I wish karma didn't take as long as it does. Scandal free administration my left buttock!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Europe will need ALL the Russian gas
that can be supplied by Nordstream 1 and 2, Turkstream AND Ukraine by 2030. Germany alone will need three times the current amount of gas just to retire all the hard and soft coal power plants they still have running.
Of course the US can frack itself to death trying to outdo Russian gas production but that option will have some dire consequences for the country that are only just appearing (least of which are the true financial costs).
Russia responds to the sanctions
‘They’ll soon demand we stop breathing’: Moscow slams Nord Stream 2 sanctions, says US hinders economic growth
Unease? Seriously that is all you got? Unease? Why not tell them to bug the hell out of their domestic affairs or you'd lose your base there? Ah well I guess when you have the banks setting the agenda it's hard to fight back.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
dire consequences, CB
earthquakes in OK.
NYCVG
The US wants to sell gas to Germany
Russia is competition for US companies. There is bipartisan support of profits for carbon companies. Still hundreds of miles of pipe to lay along the ocean floor before Nordstrom 2 is up and running.
I've calculated there is approx
80 miles of twin pipe remaining. It's laid at a rate of 3 km/day (1.3 miles/day). The completion date should have been Feb/Apr. Russia will most likely take over pipelay and finish it by fall of 2020.
BTW, the twin TurkStream pipelines are now filled with gas and will be connected to the receiving terminal in Turkey by the end of the year.
Sanctioning your allies. Smart move.
In a perverse way I hoped Nord Stream 2 was not completed and that Europe had to rely on American LNG. Give how American oil companies acted during the Arab Oil Crisis, they will destroy the EU economies with extravagently high prices and "shortages" when any country go out of line. Well, probably also increase reliance on nuclear power plants. Oh wait, the largest nuclear power plant construction company is Russian Rosatom I believe. Ha, sanctions on any European country that uses their services.
Nord Stream
The NY times has a front page story on Russia up now, and unless I read it too quickly and missed it, gas and oil were no part of it.
The New York Times is NOT the news we need to see but the news they prefer we see.
Thanks for your important work.
The real story of the world is its resources and how they are used and deployed. From the ancient Silk Road until now.
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