Posted on 12/13/2008 6:07:22 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
Gog and Magog on the march again............
The US cooperates with OPEC far more than the Russians do.
Every time we bail automakers out, oil rises. Every time we refuse to drill here we help OPEC. Every time we sell billions in arms to the Saudis we help OPEC.
Touche!
Russian troops taking forward position. I wonder if other troops are on the move as well?
Not in dispute (and you've been there, so you know); but just as other non-OPEC hegemonic state actors who happen to be oil producers (think Africa), they're all about the rise. The schwing, as it were.
Demand destruction hits Russia almost harder than any other top oil producer, because they have a far larger chunk of their billionaire oligarchy (including Pootin) tied directly into price per barrel. The Saudis come close, but they have Wahabi to keep the rabble in line.
Russian can't take a full year @$50bbl.
I have a feeling they’re testing the waters. As bad shape as our economy might be in, the Russian economy, which is highly levered to oil and gas prices, is much worse off. Their stock market is down 90%, which means no one seems to have any confidence in their economic future.
Despots like Putin are a lot easier to tolerate when they keep the trains running on time, or, in his case, keep the petro-dollars rolling in. When all his supporters are losing money, it has to be worrying him. He could be getting desperate enough to see seizing the gas pipeline that runs through Georgia as a cost-effective way to prop up Russia’s economy.
But clearly Russia is not telling OPEC to “shove it” (your words). Not even close.
Exactly. Putin said something funny lately; I don’t remember the exact words but it was to the effect of that Russia would be the new safe-haven country, like how everyone usually buys US treasuries in a crisis.
I’m not saying our stock market isn’t bad, but theirs got SO bad that they had to close it for a week in early October to try to stop the bleeding. Russia might have a first world military, but they are third world in every other regard.
The thing is that that is the popular perception (main stream media) but not the reality.
Russia wisely adopted the Norwegian model of conservative investment of the billions. The main issue for Russia as well as for the West is the issue of the competing pipelines---pipelines that run though the middle east--volatile as all hell and the ones supported by Russia. I cannot fathom why this nation has put all its eggs in the the middle east basket of hell ...the ones who have done them most to destabilize the world for the last 1300 years, in particular the house of Saud.
As for the oiligarchs-—the Russian state has gone after them one by one—they are hiding in Europe mainly in the UK. We also have trouble prosecuting our elected officials and our own home grown oligarchs who are corrupt to the bone.
Khodorkovsky still rots in a prison where he should be and others as well. Given the anarchic situation in post Soviet times - witness the leftover commies rioting because Medvedev renamed a street after Solzhenitsyn (he got his way—yes!)- the fact that the oiligarchs have actually been imprisoned says something positive about the present government.
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