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Putin, in Defeat, Diverts Pipeline
The New York Times ^ | 01 Dec 2014 | ANDREW ROTH

Posted on 12/01/2014 7:35:35 PM PST by Theoria

President Vladimir V. Putin said Monday that he would scrap Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline, a grandiose project that was once intended to establish the country’s dominance in southeastern Europe but instead fell victim to Russia’s increasingly toxic relationship with the West.

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.

The decision also seemed to be a rare victory for the European Union and the Obama administration, which have appeared largely impotent this year as Mr. Putin annexed Crimea and stirred rebellion in eastern Ukraine.

Russia had long presented the $22 billion South Stream project as a sound business move. But Washington and Brussels had dismissed it as a thinly veiled attempt by the Kremlin to cement its position as the dominant supplier in Europe while sidestepping Ukraine, where price disputes with Moscow twice interrupted supplies in recent years.

The conflict in Ukraine increased pressure from Europe against the pipeline, and construction was halted by Bulgaria in June. As diplomatic and economic pressures increased, Mr. Putin personally decided to cancel the project, Russia’s energy minister, Alexander Novak, said.

If there was one winner it was Turkey, which, along with China and other energy-hungry developing nations, has been exploiting the East-West rift to gain long-term energy supplies at bargain prices. Mr. Putin noted that on Monday during a news conference in Ankara with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying Turkey would receive a discount on gas and an additional three billion cubic meters of gas annually.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Egypt; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Israel; Russia; Syria
KEYWORDS: alexandernovak; arizonapeepants; bulgaria; china; crimea; cyprus; egypt; energy; europe; europeanunion; gasputin; gaza; gazprom; gcc; greece; hamas; iran; israel; jordan; kuwait; lebanon; methane; naturalgas; opec; pipeline; putin; putinsbuttboys; russia; saudiarabia; sinai; southstream; syria; turkey; ukraine; unitedarabemirates
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To: 1rudeboy

Any factual examples?


21 posted on 12/01/2014 10:08:32 PM PST by wetphoenix
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To: wetphoenix

Recent, or historical? lolol


22 posted on 12/01/2014 10:11:06 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Let’s start with recent.


23 posted on 12/01/2014 10:12:08 PM PST by wetphoenix
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To: wetphoenix

Let’s not. Lithuania, early 90’s.


24 posted on 12/01/2014 10:14:56 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Well, no recent examples as we see.. What happened in Lithuania in early 90s?


25 posted on 12/01/2014 10:17:07 PM PST by wetphoenix
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To: wetphoenix
Would be a perfect time for Congress to relax rules about selling domestically produced oil and gas.

A couple of shipping terminals and tankers full of US gas could be heading to keep Europe warm this winter.

26 posted on 12/01/2014 10:29:49 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: texas booster

You are probably right but switching to LNG requires some serious technical challenge to consumers geared to pipeline gas.


27 posted on 12/01/2014 10:40:34 PM PST by wetphoenix
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To: wetphoenix

Russians Playing Dumb. Film at 11.


28 posted on 12/02/2014 12:17:09 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

If I were one of you guys I should have bring some latin term to describe what you have just said to me, to display alleged intelligence.


29 posted on 12/02/2014 12:22:02 AM PST by wetphoenix
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To: wetphoenix

Sorry, I was laughing. Are all Russians so ignorant of their own history?


30 posted on 12/02/2014 12:24:58 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Well, I guess you have nothing to say on subject actually. Don’t waste your time, rude.


31 posted on 12/02/2014 12:26:58 AM PST by wetphoenix
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To: wetphoenix
Russia has been engaging in energy blackmail for decades.
Lithuania, early 90’s.

Nope, nuthin' to see, there.
32 posted on 12/02/2014 1:10:04 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: dangus
Trouble for NATO as well when you consider the fact that Turkey is cozy with ISIS and depends on its link to NATO to make it valuable enough to not suffer the consequences of supporting mad dogs.

Now, Turkey will be able to play all the transit games Ukraine did if anyone tries to reign in their support for Jihadis.

Just like they did with investing so much in "renewables" that haven't panned out, the EU is once again cutting it's own nose off to spite it's face. If they keep this kind of thing up they'll end up with as many nose jobs as Michael Jackson had.

Kaliph Erdogan has a nice ring to it that folks in the EU better get used to.

33 posted on 12/02/2014 1:25:23 AM PST by Rashputin (Jesus Christ doesn't evacuate His troops, He leads them to victory.)
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To: Rashputin

It does look good for Turkey, and Putin gets to supply more terrorists.


34 posted on 12/02/2014 2:18:22 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy
It does look good for Turkey, and Putin gets to supply more terrorists.

That would be the NATO sponsored terrorists right?

Oh my....

35 posted on 12/02/2014 4:10:51 AM PST by mac_truck ( Aide toi et dieu t aide)
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To: mac_truck
First, the US, not Putin, is the one supplying terrorists, and second NATO is the only group that has ever provided air support for terrorists who were overthrowing a secular government to install a Muzzie one.

So, more than "oh my" is in order since countries in the EU are more than happy to make more Islamic slaughter of Christians and the overthrow of more governments to install Islamic governments possible.

36 posted on 12/02/2014 4:18:10 AM PST by Rashputin (Jesus Christ doesn't evacuate His troops, He leads them to victory.)
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To: tcrlaf

would short-circuit the Saudi pipeline

- - - - - - -

What is Saudi pipeline are you referring to?


37 posted on 12/02/2014 5:10:35 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: wetphoenix

switching to LNG requires some serious technical challenge to consumers geared to pipeline gas.

- - - - - -

That is not what happens.

LNG is imported to a terminal. That terminal heats the liquid into gas which is pure methane. It is feed into the pipeline networks. No change of any type happens at the consumer. They are still burning methane gas.


38 posted on 12/02/2014 5:13:41 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: thackney; tcrlaf
What is Saudi pipeline are you referring to?

I think he meant Qatari pipeline not Saudi, although one of the proposed routes transits a large chunk of Saudi Arabia.


39 posted on 12/02/2014 6:40:50 AM PST by mac_truck ( Aide toi et dieu t aide)
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To: Rashputin

Turn this around and you’ll see the big coup for Russia. Russia has been trying to defend the Christians in Syria. They were shouting from the rooftops that attacking Bashir would spell horrors and they were right: the rebels they warned us against joined forces with Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq to form ISIS. But Turkey’s been so suspicious of Kurds they’ve been supporting ISIS... and their cozy relation to the Wahabbists of Saudi Arabia have made it all the easier.

Now, Turkey has flipped to the opposite center of power in SE Asia: Russia. Turkey is profiting off the relationship, but that’s just it: Russia’s relationship will be valuable. And Russia can apply pressure to support both Bashir and the would-have-been anti-Bashir Kurds.


40 posted on 12/02/2014 7:23:30 AM PST by dangus
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