what will Russia run its war machine on without oil profits???the dim euros are starting to wake up.
Russia will help McCain win by wide margin.
What will the world’s plan of action be? If Russia can blackmail Europe with oil in order to expand their power, then we’ve already lost.
What reason is there to not stop them right now? It will only continue.
They’re not ticked at the Germans, its just Poland which the pipleline traverses. They’re still hopping mad over the ABM shield deal and mutual defense treaty. They’ve now threatened Poland about every way they possibly can.
P.S. I’m not a ‘strategerist’ and welcome any input.
Amen! The West should have seen this coming. Putin gets power through energy control. This may work better than the Russian Army.
HEY RUSSIA! DICK CHENEY TO YOU!
We can pay $4 gas but we. i.e. The West, can crush you like a freaking ant if we band together and decide to.
what will Russia run its war machine on without oil profits???Import oil from Norway. Rename the pipeline Puto.
Our politicians failed to learn anything thirty years ago after the Arab Oil Embargo to punish those who supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Back then we still produced 70% of our crude oil needs. Now we produce about 30%.
Have they yet learned that we must develop our ability to produce a large percentage of our energy needs, or we will always be subject to supply manipulation by such as the Arabs or the Russians or Hugo Chavez?
Nothing new in this story. The danger of this sort of action has been known for 30+ years. It’s just playing “Russian” roulette, waiting until some oil producing thug nation decides to slip a bullet into the chamber.
McCain’s bold proposal is to drill more offshore, IF the state(s) involved agrees. But no drilling in ANWR.
Let them do it. In the end Russia will lose big time.
If they reduce flow or shut it off, Poland should padlock the valves on their side of the line, and leave it shut off for another week or so after the Russians try to put it back into service.
What about that line from the Caspian to Europe by way of Ukraine? Time to get that thing underway, no?
I'm also shorting Obama.
Apparently there is no Russian word for “fungible”.
I understand that a fair amount of foreign investment has fled Russia since the Georgia thing.
It seems foolish to play chicken with a fungible commodity.
If Russia loses it’s energy revenue, they’ll probably be out of money in short order.
Seems they need to sell it as much as Europe needs to buy it.
And if Poland isn’t going on a crash diversification program, they are dunderheads.
Oh, B.S. It will take 10 years to see the effects of this oil cutoff at the pump and it probably won’t drive prices up more than a few cents............./s
Well, if he does carry out the threat... Russia has shot the last bullet in it’s arsenal (outside of full-scale war).
Because after that, just what can Russia do to Europe and America should we... counterattack.
For example, Putin shuts off Western Europe’s oil and natural gas. So, then the US and EU shut down all trade with Russia.
What can Russia do about it? Outside of full-scale war... they have no more options.
And if there isn’t any more options, then the diplomatic game is lost.
Fungible is not just a funky word. Russia is going to get hurt if they keep this up.
The SCO was not too happy with Russia giving independence to the two republics, but warned that any EU/US Sanctions would be counterproductive.