Posted on 12/21/2015 12:55:28 PM PST by Marcus
A recent op-ed in the Observer notes the progress of Russia’s economic war against Turkey in the wake of the Turkish shoot-down of a Russia jet fighter. The short version is that Russia is inflicting significant pain on Turkey. Russia has slowed down the construction of nuclear power plants that Turkey is relying on to provide electricity. The Russians have also stopped importing Turkish fruits and vegetables, a $4 billion hit to Turkey’s export revenues. Russia has also curtailed travel to Turkey by its citizens.
All this may just be the opening shot in an economic campaign that could cripple Turkey as surely as a shooting war. The next step may be for Russia to reduce or even stop $20 billion worth of natural gas that it sells to Turkey every year. That would deprive Turkey’s electrical grid of the fuel it needs to run.
(Excerpt) Read more at capitalistreview.com ...
Gee, how mean of the Russians! /sarc
Too bad our “leaders” don’t have near the guts of the Russian leaders.
More likely, Obama’s ISIL fiends.
Screw the Turks.
First eject Turkey from NATO, then turn our backs on them when they fall.
Screw Turkey. Let them shiver in the cold and eat their halal food raw!
There would be several years of lead time and large investments required for Turkey to build the port, storage and transport infrastructure to get their gas from tanker ships instead of pipelines.
The US export capability for LNG is just fixing to come on line significantly over the next several years, after several years of lead time efforts. They are big construction projects, with long review and approval processes.
Even in countries that don’t have bureaucratic delays, there are usually similarly long delays while the politics, prices, and kickback amounts are negotiated. Turkey could probably move quickly on a political decision because Erdogan already has things sewn up there, but lining up financing and completing construction is still a multi-year effort.
Turkey just re-established diplomatic ties with Israel (last week), looking to get linked to the large proven Israeli Leviathan Gas Field, which is now entering development, so that might turn on for them in 2017 or 2018, if they hurry.
It would still serve them to have the diversification that comes from tanker ports, because the tankers could come from anywhere (Qatar is the world leader now, but the USA is a rising star).
This Winter though, Russia really has a lever over the Turks. They have used gas as a diplomatic weapon before.
(’would deprive Turkey`s electrical grid of the power it needs to run...’) GOOD! They can try running an extension cord from that place those muslim terrorists are all ways citing. Now what`s that name..., oh yeah, allah`s snackbar!
How is it that Turkey is still part of NATO
You tell me? Though in a name, its most probably due to OBozo and his ass-clown circus being still on the air. Go Cruz or Trump in 2016! (in that order)
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