Posted on 08/09/2008 8:20:46 PM PDT by SonnyCorleone
Russian tanks are rolling again, but why now?
For one thing, the high oil prices that have propped up the Russian economy are now faltering. The bubble has burst. The Russian stock market (RTS) dropped 25% so far this year.
This stock crash is in spite of vast Russian oil profits. With most of the Russian oil money looted from Russia, and now Russian oil prices falling, the economy is suffering. Real estate has been more expensive in Moscow than in anyplace in the world. That bubble too may now change.
As Jack said yesterday (8/08) "Russia has no future beyond ephemerally high oil prices. Once they crash, so does Russia."
The orchestration of high oil prices has fallen apart since America (meaning the Republicans) finally started to get serious about oil supplies. With the future showing cheaper oil, what supported the gluttonous Russian mafia has disappeared. The Putinistas know this, and need a distraction to keep the people feeling powerful and Russian.
And of course, what is a more nationalistic time to show Russia's power but at the start of the Olympics? The whole operation is awash in testosterone.
Furthermore, Georgia has been seeking to join NATO. In the big scheme of things, Russia wants to counter the placement of the missiles in Eastern Europe. Russia will now have a bargaining chip in Georgia as well as a menacing military to back it up.
Furthermore, Georgia is home to a vital oil pipeline:
As the London Times observes:
The area is of strategic importance, largely because of the BTC oil pipeline, which runs through central Georgia just south of the breakaway region. The pipeline - which features in the 1999 James Bond film The World is Not Enough - pumps around one per cent of global crude supplies from the Caspian to the Turkish port of Ceyhan for export to Western Europe but is already closed because of an attack in Turkey last week by the Kurdish separatist organization PKK.
Furthermore, isn't it interesting that the same pipeline was just shut down last week in Turkey by the PKK. This is the same Leftist PKK that Jack was talking about in The Kurdish Map. The PKK shut it down, but that was not enough to revive the price of oil. Something had to be done with longer term ramifications to affect the price, and Russia did it.
But has it worked? The Russian stock market dropped 6% in one day. Oil is still dropping.
Isn't it strange that a major oil producer (Russia) is at war, and a major pipeline is in the war zone, and the price of oil drops? The PKK shuts a pipeline and nothing happens. This at the same time as tensions in the Middle East and Iran are coming to a head? The price of oil should be going up but it isn't. Something changed.
What changed was the Olympics. Beijing and its nearby cities with their vast appetite for oil and energy were shut down for the Olympics to cut pollution. The oil drop started at the same time as these measures were instituted. Bush timed it perfectly to get the greatest effect and pop the oil bubble. Bush's move to make oil drilling available and drop oil prices was coordinated with the skill of an oil man.
What will Russia do? It will raise the ante. It has done deviltry for oil profit before, and there is no reason to doubt it will do it again under these its dire economic circumstances. The easiest place to do that is in the Persian Gulf, and the time to do it with the greatest effect is after the end of the Olympics, right when China Inc. with its voracious appetite for oil comes back on line.
The Russian bear is back.
thanks for the illuminating thread.
this is disgusting, but many Freepers just don’t believe there is a “Russian Bear”.
Not only do they not believe it, they seem to have some ludicrous ,or, hyper delusional idea that Russia will become some Christian vanguard against the rising Muslim hordes.
RE: “The whole operation is awash in testosterone.”
-this story has gotta be coming from a feminist with a liberal mindset.
Yeah, I love that one. Russia will just take one country after another and when the Muzzies come, we have no option except to join them against the muzzies.
those that think we are “stuck” in the past with the phrase Russian Bear should do a little history...the KGB was the czarist secret police before it became the KGB. russia was emprialistic way before Stalin.
“New Boss, same as the old boss.”they just changed dictatorship uniforms.
Recovering Ex-hippie wrote:“New Boss, same as the old boss.”they just changed dictatorship uniforms.”
Funny you said that,every time I hear that song I think about that very same thing.
The Miami Herald is well known as a bastion of PC speakers, Libroids, pervs, ad nauseam.
Still, in the winter, I keep the free copies dropped off in my in-town neighbor’s yard. They are the best kindling for my wood BBQ.
The person who wrote the article is about as far from a feminist with a liberl mindset as you can find.
I’l take your word for it. But you’ve gotta admit; that “awash in testosterone” comment sure sounded like something from a feminist...
I’ll admit it may sound that way but in reality Dagny has perfectly framed the mindset of Rooty-Poot Putin and his Napoleon Complex.
He’s compelled to display his “testosterone” lest we all take him for the midget coward that he is.
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