Tribuna
\nOctober 29, 2009<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Russia has powerful allies in Europe nowadays
\nAuthor: Giulietto Chiesa
\nSOME EUROPEAN COUNTRIES HAVE THE PRESENCE OF MIND TO DISREGARD WASHINGTON’S ORDERS IN THE MATTER OF ENERGY COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As soon as Nord Stream negotiated all bureaucratic and
\ntechnological obstacles, Europe and the United States initiated
\ndebates or, rather, mounted a campaign aiming to circumvent the
\nwhole project. It was then that Premier Vladimir Putin organized
\ninformal meetings with his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi
\nand Gerhard Schroeder of Germany.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nord Stream is the largest project Moscow designed in years.
\nIt is a gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea to Germany that will
\nspare Russia inconveniences of transit via Ukraine. Victor
\nYuschenko’s reign made the situation absolutely intolerable. The
\nso called Orange Revolution put Kiev under Brussels’ and
\nWashington’s protective wing and set it on a course into NATO via
\nthe European Union. In other words, it fomented a deliberate
\nconfrontation with Moscow. Why would Russia continue to try and
\nappease Kiev? Past friendship is kaput. Besides, not even all of
\nEurope is prepared to put up with the Ukrainian blackmailers. That
\ntheir methods lack finesse is putting it mildly. Whenever gas
\nbound for Europe disappears somewhere in Ukraine, Moscow turns the
\nvalve. As a result, both Kiev and Europe remain without gas. Sure,
\nit costs Russia too but what really counts is that Europe is
\nswindled out of one fourth of the gas it needs.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Moscow’s pragmatic policy secured it another prospective
\nbuyer, one who desperately needs all energy it can lay its hands
\non. This new customer can well reroute the channels still going to
\nthe West in its own direction. The matter concerns China, of
\ncourse. Gas pipelines to China are already built.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In other words, Putin has found someone interested and
\nprepared to pay. Nord Stream in the meantime costs more than 10
\nbillion euros. Germany was the first country where the Kremlin’s
\nvoice was finally heard. Ex-Chancellor Schroeder became the head
\nof the project. Frau Merkel backed him. Sarkozy in France wants
\nhis slice of the pie too. There is South Stream as well, an
\nalternative to Nabucco. South Stream will send Russian gas via the
\nBlack Sea to Bulgaria, Balkans, Greece, Italy. Putin’s plans found
\nenthusiastic supporters in official Rome – Berlusconi and Eni. So,
\nthere is a new situation to be taken into account. It is in
\nMoscow’s power now to deliver gas, Russian and Central Asian, to
\nEurope without fearing that Ukraine will pull something off.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Needless to say, official Washington does not take to all
\nthese developments. Pretty well forgotten, Jimmy Carter’s National
\nSecurity Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski raised his voice again.
\nWashington plainly announced that Moscow was out to divide West
\nand East Europe. Its satellites joined the critical chorus.
\nEstonia began complaining that the Baltic states had been
\n“ignored”. A bunch of exes (former heads of states and
\ngovernments) condemned Moscow for the intention “to restore its
\nsphere of influence”. All projects promoted by Moscow seek to
\nundermine economic stability of East Europe – that’s the most
\npopular tune in East European capitals, these days. The Kremlin is
\ncondemned for what is called “energy blackmail”.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But why wouldn’t Brussels itself rearrange gas in accordance
\nwith market realities? Russia will keep exporting gas in any
\nevent. East Europeans claim that Moscow has planned some foul play
\nand that demands will be put forth soon enough. Sikorski in Warsaw
\nwent so far as to equate Nord Stream with the Molotov-Ribbentrop
\nPact. (To listen to these guys, construction of gas pipelines must
\nbe thwarted no matter what.) European allies sing hosannah to
\nNabucco, a project lobbied by the United States. Nabucco is about
\ngiving Russia the mitten and having the Central Asian work for the
\nWest. Besides, Nabucco is to be built across Turkey and Georgia.
\nBy and large, that’s a great plan, but… but Putin and Medvedev
\nhave already struck back. They have powerful (not to say decisive)
\nallies in Europe now.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some events of considerable magnitude and importance are
\nbound to follow. Since Putin, Berlusconi, and Schroeder decided to
\nmeet informally in St.Petersburg, it can only mean that a
\ncounteroffensive is about to be mounted.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Translated by Aleksei Ignatkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tribuna October 29, 2009 Fortunately, Russia has powerful allies in Europe nowadays Author: Giulietto Chiesa SOME EUROPEAN COUNTRIES HAVE THE PRESENCE OF MIND TO DISREGARD WASHINGTON’S ORDERS IN THE MATTER OF ENERGY COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As soon as Nord Stream negotiated all bureaucratic and technological obstacles, Europe and the United States initiated debates or, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":36296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,12,679,42,783,34],"tags":[176],"class_list":["post-15849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-france","category-germany","category-italy-eu-members-european-countries-english","category-russia","category-ukraine-eastern-europe-english","category-usa","tag-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}