Posted on 08/11/2008 1:05:59 PM PDT by neverdem
RUSTAVI, Georgia
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
The end game?
Drill here, Drill now! We have to use our own oil.
Russia is going berserk. WHO will stopp them.
Now we are getting to the heart of the matter.
Turkey will not be happy, what is their fee for use of the pipeline?
This happened yesterday..
This is about more than just punishing the Georgians for their claim to Osetia. The Europeans are about to get a rude awakening in Russian energy diplomacy. They should have gotten a wake up call when Russia turned off the spigot to the Ukraine.
Yup, non-story so far.
Its beside the point, but I wonder what was the point of routing the pipeline overland thru Turkey in the first place? To avoid the Russian navy?
This was a shot across the bow...
Not damn good shooting. The “target” isn’t shooitg back.
Besides confirming what is probably the most likely russian motive for the recent unpleasantness?
This has since been disproven.
Didn’t Georgia align itself with George Soros after he funded the revolution there? If so, why should I care what happens to them?
Yes, and I don’t know why.
That, and to avoid the two major choke points from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean (the easily-blockable straits of Bosporus and Dardanelles).
Even before its completion, the BTC pipeline was affecting the world's oil politics. The South Caucasus, previously seen as Russia's backyard, is now a region of great strategic significance to other great powers. The U.S. and other Western nations have consequently become much more closely involved in the affairs of the three nations through which oil will flow. Some have criticized this degree of western involvement in the South Caucasus, arguing that it has led to an unhealthy dependence on undemocratic leaders.[citation needed] The countries themselves though have been trying to use the involvement as a counterbalance to Russian and Iranian economic and military dominance in the region.[15][22] It is seen similarly by Russian specialists claiming that the pipeline is aimed to weaken the Russian influence in Caucasus. The Russian Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Konstantin Kosachev even stated that the United States and other Western countries are planning to settle their soldiers in Caucasus on the pretext of instability in regions where the pipeline passes through.[23]
The project also constitutes an important leg of the East-West energy corridor, gaining Turkey greater geopolitical importance. The BTC pipeline also supports Georgia's independence from Russian influence. Former President Eduard Shevardnadze, one of the architects and initiators of the project, saw the construction of the pipeline through Georgian territory as a certain guarantee for the country's future economic and political security and stability. This view has been fully shared by his successor President Mikhail Saakashvili. "All strategic contracts in Georgia, especially the contract for the Caspian pipeline are a matter of survival for the Georgian state," he told reporters on 26 November 2003.[citation needed]
I guess we had better raise the price of a gallon of gas to $4 because of this.
In case anyone had any doubt about what this was really about...
A message to Turkey, you want the Azerbaijani pipeline to remain open.
Don’t come to Georgia’s aid or allow NATO to use the airbases in Turkiye. (As if they would, but just in case).
All your pipes belong to us......
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