In a December 2nd conference call, the leaders of Russia and China will officially launch a new era in relations between the two countries. The largest gas exporter and the fastest growing large market in the world will be connected by a pipeline system that will link the gas fields of Eastern Siberia with Shanghai; the pipeline network will extend more than 6,000 km....Valdai Analytics
Although understated in most media accounts of the visit, perhaps the most significant statement by the retired four-star general was his reiteration of the US defense commitment to backing Japan in its dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands — islands China has claimed as its sovereign territory and calls the Diaoyou.
Mattis reaffirmed that the uninhabited islands that sit atop large reserves of undersea oil and gas coveted by both China and Japan are covered by the 1960 US-Japan Defense Treaty."It's the oil, stupid."
"Secret cables and reports by the U.S., Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link. In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria.”— Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria, Politico
The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will connect the Caspian Sea to European markets, providing Europe with another large source of natural gas that will help the continent diversify away from Russia. The route begins at the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan, where the South Caucuses Pipeline will carry Caspian gas from the large Shah Deniz-2 gas field, delivering it to the border with Turkey. From Turkey the gas will tie into the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), which will take the gas across Turkey to the border with Greece where it will meet up with the aforementioned Trans-Adriatic Pipeline. The Caspian gas will then travel through TAP across Greece, beneath the Adriatic Sea and onto Italy.…OilPrice.com
The Shias Are Sitting On All of the Oil and GasWashington's Blog
Those familiar with the Syrian conflict would recognize this section of the Syrian-Turkish border as precisely the boundaries of the long-sought after “safe zone” the US, NATO, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have attempted to establish since as early as 2012. The Paris attacks and several minor border incidents recently reported, seem to be only the latest in a long line of cited provocations this axis has attempted to use to implement its preconceived plans.
This region between Jarabulus and Afrin constitutes the primary corridor through which the summation of Al Qaeda’s Al Nusra Front and the so-called “Islamic State” or ISIS, receive weapons, supplies, and fresh fighters. Through coordinated efforts between Syria’s Kurds and the Syrian government itself, the rest of Syria’s northern border with Turkey has been sealed. As this process has progressed, the desperation of the Western-led axis seeking regime change in Damascus has increased proportionally.
In reality, regardless of the West’s repetitive platitudes regarding its determination to “fight ISIS,” its actions and the actions of its regional allies have fully illustrated a desire to preserve the terrorist group. Its feigned “war on ISIS” helped open the door to the recent Russian military intervention. With Russia’s entry into the war, the West can no longer afford to drag out its nonexistent operations against ISIS, hoping for an opportunity to finally divide and destroy the country.
Russia and the Syrian Arab Army for whom it is providing air support, have nearly closed the Jarabulus-Afrin corridor themselves. In fact, the week before the Paris attacks, Syrian troops had established a corridor to the besieged Kweires airbase, just 40 kilometers from the Euphrates. Since then, the Syrian military has expanded its control around the surrounding area. Should it reach the Euphrates, along with taking Aleppo and moving northeast from Latakia in the west, Syria will fill the void NATO has long sought to establish its “safe zone” in.
In other words, there is a race between NATO to implement a partial occupation of Syria, and Syria and its allies racing to fill the void before this happens – and the race is nearly over.
ISIS is not only destined to divide and destroy Syria and Iraq. If the West has its way, the terrorist organization is destined to move into Iran, the Caucasus region of southern Russia, and Central Asia next. It is a proxy army built atop of what the United States and Saudi Arabia accomplished with Al Qaeda starting in the 1980’s, which itself was merely a continuation of the British Empire’s use of Wahabbi fanatics to overthrow its Ottoman rivals over a century ago.
When the West calls this a “long war,” they mean it. And it will be longer still until the people of the West realize their governments aren’t waging a “War on Terror,” they are waging a “War of Terror.”Russia knows this. Iran knows this. And China knows this.
As you can see, the circle of credit-insurance-low liability becomes a perfect money filtering machine. This is not new mind you, the system has been in place since the fall of the Soviet Union. As was the case with La Cosa Nostra, or the Sicilian mafia in US lore, the system resembles racketeering, with everybody involved taking a piece of the pie. In the case of Ukraine, the pie is in fact the hard earned livelihoods of every-single-solitary Ukrainian citizen. They are the ones “guaranteeing” the oligarchs’ investment, which is in fact no investment at all. Now for the interesting part, let me tell you about the part where Western oligarchs take over. This is where the battle for Ukraine has been settled, not at a conference in Minsk, but high atop some skyscraper owned by fabulously wealthy men.…New Eastern Outlook
OverviewFort Russ
The present war in Ukraine and events in Transnistria are already serious indications that the Balkans and West Black Sea regions are correctly forecasted to be theatres of instability in the coming period. Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Serbia are critical pieces.
Indisputably, the conflict in Ukraine greatly involves the future of Eurasian natural gas pipeline projects. These cannot be considered geopolitically distinct from Russia-Turkey bilateral relations nor from the pipeline 'cold war' presently taking place in the Balkans. As a general rule, it the Ukraine war demonstrates that between the major power blocs, outright war is indeed 'an option'.
In analyzing the events, the debate primarily surrounds the viability and status of Turkish Stream/South Stream on the one hand, and 'TANAP/TAP' backed by the Atlanticist network.…
It is apparent that the deal with Iran is going to have repercussions at global level. The reason for this is involvement of all major powers in this issue directly or indirectly. It is not out of a sudden that Iran has emerged as a strategic necessity for the US and the EU. This change has necessarily emerged due to the collapse of the US-EU-Russian relations due to the former’s interference in Ukraine to restrict the rise of Russia. The deal is, as such, as much a part of the West’s new containment policy as of the new outlook towards the Middle East—-the erstwhile home to all sorts of conflicts: political, strategic, economic, ethnic and religious.New Eastern Outlook
Apparently Russia isn’t rushing into the arms of China fast enough for Europe. Schnell, schnell!The EU already tried this on South Stream and was shocked, shocked, shocked, when Russia cancelled the project and rerouted though Turkey. Now they are coming back for more? What was that about doing the same thing and expecting different results?
Both Yamal LNG’s move to China and Russia’s newfound partnership with India are key steps in Moscow’s plan of undermining Western sanctions. What has become clear is that emerging powers and partners of Russia are more than willing to fill in the gap that has been left wide open by fleeing Western investors. For its part, the US, which recently gave indication that it saw no end to sanctions until Crimea was returned to Ukraine, might run the risk of allowing political aims to weaken its own economic output, specifically the future growth of its bulging energy industry sector.
While US economic sanctions have unwantedly brought Russia and its Asian partners closer together than ever before, De Margerie was always quick to point out the obvious: “Can we live without Russian gas in Europe? The answer is no. Are there any reasons to live without it? I think […] it is a no”. While EU member states and the US government are striving to sway Putin from his present course in Ukraine, they should also think about the unintended long-term consequences that foregoing collaboration with Russian companies in the arctic would have for their own economies.
As stated a by senior analyst at the Forex Club, Alyona Afanasyevna, “times of crisis always present the possibility to strengthen one’s position in a certain market” and while other international companies flee the scene, Total’s commitment to Russia and to Novatek’s Yamal LNG plan, “guarantees it future dividends in the form of closer cooperation”. Western governments and other energy companies should take note.Oilprice.com
So the EU “defeated” Putin by forcing him to cancel the South Stream pipeline. Thus ruled Western corporate media.
Nonsense.
Facts on the ground spell otherwise. This “Pipelineistan” gambit will continue to send massive geopolitical shockwaves all across Eurasia for quite some time.…Russia Insider
Given the very high stakes of a nuclear confrontation with Russia, some analysts wonder what’s the real motive for taking this extraordinary risk over Ukraine. Is it about natural gas, protection of the U.S. dollar’s dominance, or an outgrowth of neocon extremism, asks Robert Parry.Or a combination of the above.
A senior U.S. diplomat told me recently that if Russia were to occupy all of Ukraine and even neighboring Belarus that there would be zero impact on U.S. national interests. The diplomat wasn’t advocating that, of course, but was noting the curious reality that Official Washington’s current war hysteria over Ukraine doesn’t connect to genuine security concerns.So what's up with this?
