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Reagan administration warned Russian pipeline through Ukraine would weaken West
The Washington Times ^ | 5 March 2014 | Jeffrey Scott Shapiro

Posted on 05/03/2014 6:24:19 AM PDT by ScaniaBoy

In a memo to the White House in July 1981, advisers in the Ronald Reagan administration urged opposition to a new pipeline from Russia’s oil- and gas-rich regions to Europe, warning that it would weaken the West’s bargaining hand.

“Our strategy is aimed at limiting Soviet economic leverage over the West,” Pentagon aides told the White House in the memo.

The Trans-Siberian Pipeline, which crosses modern-day Ukraine, was built nonetheless, and it helped transform Russia into an energy superpower that nurtures the European Union’s dependence on its fossil fuels.

Nearly 33 years later, the warning from Reagan’s defense advisers stands prescient, as President Vladimir Putin, the KGB-bred successor to the Soviet empire, has muted the West’s response to his military incursion in Ukraine by relying on Europe’s addiction to Russian resources.

“President Reagan clearly understood at the time that Russia was not interested in being part of the family of nations,” said Larry Eastland, a State Department official in the Reagan administration. “Anytime you allow someone to have their hand on the spigot, you’ve not only given them economic power, you’ve given them military power as well.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: gas; oil; reagan; russia
Palin 2008, and Reagan in 1981. Real conservatives are prescient.
1 posted on 05/03/2014 6:24:19 AM PDT by ScaniaBoy
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To: ScaniaBoy
To be fair, one didn't have to be a rocket scientist (in 1981) to see what was going to happen. It was obvious. A lot of people didn't want to see it, for their own reasons.
2 posted on 05/03/2014 6:28:50 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: ScaniaBoy

Reagan vs Obama

What a contrast.

The Builder vs The Destroyer

The Genius vs The Bag Of Hammers


3 posted on 05/03/2014 6:42:11 AM PDT by samtheman
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To: ScaniaBoy

WWRT? (what would Reagan think?)

4 posted on 05/03/2014 6:42:18 AM PDT by Former Fetus (Saved by grace through faith)
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To: 1rudeboy

Part of the make-up of conservatives to see the world as it is not as one would wish it to be. No need for rocket-science. :)


5 posted on 05/03/2014 6:54:05 AM PDT by ScaniaBoy (Part of the Right Wing Research & Attack Machine)
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To: ScaniaBoy

And now it’s 2014, and oh, ‘tis true, ‘tis true.


6 posted on 05/03/2014 11:12:38 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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