Posted on 08/17/2008 2:17:57 AM PDT by Schnucki
The crisis in Georgia has focused minds on the supply of oil to western Europe via lines that cross - and avoid - Russia. Russell Hotten considers the prospects for the embattled democracy
The sight of bombed-out buildings and Russian tanks descending on villages in Georgia has underlined that for all its investment potential, this vast stretch of the globe remains a powder keg. Moscow has not just sent a message to several former Soviet states not to step out of line, it has sent a signal to Europe about the fragility and security of its economic interests.
Television pictures of Georgians fleeing the fighting brought forth international condemnation. But less publicised were the Russian missile strikes near the Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, one of several arteries in the the Caucasus that bring oil and gas to the west.
Some 50 missiles struck within a few hundred metres of this key oil transit route. There is no evidence that the Russians intended to hit the BTC, which is 30 per cent-owned by BP, the UK energy major. But it was a salutary warning at a time when the European Union is desperate to reduce its dependency on Russian oil and gas.
The 1,100-mile pipeline, which ships about 90,000 barrels per day and from next year will have capacity for 1.2m barrels per day, is one of the few pipelines from the Caspian region not to cross Russian soil. It ships high-quality crude from eastern Azerbaijan,through Georgia, to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. It is the longest pipeline after Druzhba, which stretches 2,500 miles from south-eastern Russia to Germany.
The pipeline has, in fact, been shut for more than a week due to a fire in eastern Turkey, and should re-open in the next few weeks. The Kurdistan Workers Party
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
(A new twist on an old Reagan joke)
How do you know a Russian is at the cockfight?
He’s the one with the duck.
How do you know murdering jack-booted thug bastards are at the cockfight?
They bet on the duck.
How do you know Putin is at the cockfight?
The duck wins.
Yes, the article IS a good read. It explains more to me about the Why of Russia attacking Georgia.
But the second a decission is made to protect the non Russian pipeline to Europe the Russians will close down the pipelines they control and thus plunge the West into economic chaos.Western Europe,long reduced to weenie status,will cave like a paper house in a hurricane—and der Fuhrer Putin knows it.
A Marine base in Georgia and the announced intention to deploy intermediate nuclear missiles in the Ukraine (ala Reagan’s Pershings)and supporting a Ukranian naval blockade of the Crimea with USN Ships would be a start.
But the primary action to give America the protection it needs in the face of all this can be summed up in four words—”Drill Here! Drill Now!”
Unfortunately,the resurgent USSR that once again threatens our very existance has,as it did then,it’s greatest ally in the Liberal Democrat.
LOLL!
The weird aspect of your joke is that it is so real.
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