[the invisib1e hand]

Been saying that Russia was cornering the energy market for years.

Been asking, rhetorically, "to what end."

People are finally connecting the dots.

Gotta love Gazprom's press releases lately predicting oil goes to $250 a barrel. Can't neglect the propaganda front.

[ThePythonicCow]

Been saying that Russia was cornering the energy market for years.

I recall reading once that Reagan, sometime in the early 1980's, talked the Saudi King into keeping the price of oil low enough that Russia couldn't afford to bring it up. Saudi Arabia has lower production costs than Russia.

That succeeded, for a while.

But now Saudi Arabia has lost control of the price, and can no longer control the market enough to keep Russia out.

So it's a mad rush for petro-dollars, and for the Russians, sweet but crude revenge for our messing with their Soviet empire. The cold war never ended; it just went into apparent remission for a while.

If only it were just the Russians gunning for our hide ;).

Sometimes the ebb and flow of power on the world stage seems more like the power struggles of rival drug gangs than it does a discussion at a Quaker Society prayer meeting (or whatever Quakers call them.)