Bump
A few weeks ago his currency was at an all time low.
Now the Southern Pipeline that could have been a great source of income, is a bust.
He’s seen as a pariah in the West.
Oil prices which his nation relied heavily on, have tanked.
And this is described as a rare diplomatic defeat.
LOL, I’d hate to see what passes for a non rare problem for him.
COMPLETELY different angle by the NYTimes, than in the NDTV Japan story:
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/vladimir-putin-scraps-south-stream-gas-pipeline-on-turkey-visit-628534
He is all but coming out and directly warning Europe that it could get really cold this winter:
“If Europe does not want the pipeline to be realised then that means that it will not be realised,” said Putin, adding that Russia could look to deliver gas to other markets including LNG (liquefied natural gas) deliveries to Asia.
He warned that Russia could now lower gas volumes delivered to Europe.
“We will orientate our energy resources to other regions of the world,” he said. “And Europe will not receive those volumes (that it had) from Russia.”
“But that is the choice of our European friends,” he added acidly.”
A deal with Turkey would still cut off the Saudi pipeline to Europe, which is what controlling Syria is about.
~It was a rare diplomatic defeat for Mr. Putin, who said Russia would redirect the pipeline to Turkey. He painted the failure to build the pipeline as a loss for Europe and blamed Brussels for its intransigence.~
Why is it not a loss for Europe? A lot was said about “energy blackmail” by Russia but it is yet to translate to reality.
All the problems with European supply in mid2000s was actually attributed to Ukraine, which routinely failed to pay its gas bills and siphoned supply intended to West European consumers.
Russia got all the bad press over it because it was useless to put blame on Ukraine - it simply couldn’t solve a thing though Russia might have been bullied into pumping more gas to compensate theft.
Nord Stream down the Baltic Sea was a way to secure German market from Ukrainian factor.
South Stream was a possibility for Austria and South Europe to secure theirs.
It is noble that EU have chosen to stand with Ukraine but it would stay noble only if they would stay by Ukraine then it would be a problem for their transit once again and of course they should pay the price.
Putin and Russia are going to need GasX
About half of Russia’s economy depends on oil profits.
Putin suffers a defeat. The source for this is The Old Gray Streetwalker Of Journalism.
Therefore we may conclude that Putin won one.