[Wonder Warthog]

"What matters is they have many times more oil than we do. They are going to win because of it, and there’s nothing we can do about it."

Nope. Fracking has changed all that. We have centuries of usable gas and oil in gigantic shale deposits. This has already derailed Moscow's "oil diplomacy" vis-a-vis the United States. They still have some leverage with Europe, as transportation by pipeline is possible. The same is true of OPEC.

[Reily]

Czarist Russia was never an American ally (Only a circumstantial one in WWI!) but we always had a cordial relationship with them. There is no reason we can return to a similar state of affairs.

[Owen]

Fracking changed nothing.

The US burns 20 million bpd (That’s 42 gallon barrels per day).

Shale in both Texas and North Dakota flow about 3.5 mbpd.

Read that carefully. Math trumps propaganda.

Russia’s Bazhenov shale is bigger than both Bakken and EagleFord/West Permian.

There is no good news here.