Posted on 12/30/2014 11:14:59 PM PST by elhombrelibre
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Barely two weeks after President Vladimir V. Putin annexed Crimea on one side of the Black Sea, he won a different prize on the other side. In Bulgaria’s Parliament, lawmakers gave initial passage to a bill clearing the way for a mammoth gas pipeline from Russia.
The pipeline, known as South Stream, was Mr. Putin’s most important European project, a tool of economic and geopolitical power critical to twin goals: keeping Europe hooked on Russian gas, and further entrenching Russian influence in fragile former Soviet satellite states as part of a broader effort to undermine European unity.
The bill that Parliament took up on April 4 was arcane. But it swept aside a host of European regulations — rules that Mr. Putin did not want to abide by — for a pipeline that would deliver gas throughout southern Europe.
It was a dream bill for Mr. Putin, and with reason. While Bulgaria’s Energy Ministry ostensibly wrote the legislation, documents reveal the hidden hand of the Kremlin: Not only did much of the language come from a subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned energy giant, Gazprom, but Mr. Putin’s energy minister was directly involved.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I know, off topic, but I really enjoyed traveling through Bulgaria. And what I saw was a lot of European sponsorship of private enterprises ( with signs that said such).
The Euros (Germans) authored a plan where the EU would own the pipeline and all the infrastructure, and Russia would only own the gas.
The Russians are instead selling that gas to Turkey rather than abide by EU terms. The Euros need to get Israeli gas on line quickly. But the EU is right in the middle of hating the Jews and loving “Palestine”.
No worries. I usually have someone come to the thread and announce that Putin at least isn’t Obama, which is both obvious and not germane.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f07_1419070764
This is a very good article on the death of the south stream project. Much more insightful than the NYT. (surprise)
Those posts were always head scratchers to me. Good night. See you in the New Year. ( Loved to say that when I was a kid.)
I met a real cutie pie back about 20 years ago visiting here from sophia.
Happy New Year to you, too.
Well, one business that I understand will boom with the decline of the ruble brought on by Putin’s dropping oil prices and sanctions to address Putin’s recklessness and invasion of Crimea and war on Ukraine, is the Russian bride business. They’ll cost much less and be more keen to leave.
The proverbial pipe dream.
If the NY Slimes was truthful (a snowballs chance in H...), the title of it's article would be:
Putin Derails Pipeline Deal and Screws Arrogant EU
As usual the Slimes does the Mainstream Media heavy slanting to try to make Putin the bad guy. When it is the EU that screwed itself by angering it's main Natural Gas supplier.
The upshot is that Asia, Turkey and Russia itself will benefit and the EU become weaker. The Russian Bear is awake again and I don't think John Kerry will be able to calm it.
On Obama's watch Russia has gone from being a US Trading partner to more of what it used to be like: The Soviet Union.
“The Russians are instead selling that gas to Turkey rather than abide by EU terms. The Euros need to get Israeli gas on line quickly. But the EU is right in the middle of hating the Jews and loving “Palestine”.”
And as we all know, the Palestinians have so much to offer the world. /sarc
Now that oil is tanking Putey’s swamp is the Ukraine and he’s up to his azz in alligators.
very funny
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