The Caspian Sea nations (Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan) are threatening the U.S. about rumors that the U.S. may attack Iran. But Putin has a far greater objective in mind by buddying up with Iran and he has a much bigger bone to pick with the U.S. than the threat to Iran.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin met his Iranian counterpart Tuesday and implicitly warned the U.S. not to use a former Soviet republic to stage an attack on Iran. He also said nations shouldn't pursue oil pipeline projects in the area if they weren't backed by regional powers.
At a summit of the five nations that border the inland Caspian Sea, Putin said none of the nations' territory should be used by any outside countries for use of military force against any nation in the region. It was a clear reference to long-standing rumors that the U.S. was planning to use a former Soviet republic, as a staging ground for any possible military action against Iran.
This is significant for a number of reasons. First, notice the regionalization of the 'Caspian Sea nations'? I think we can view the 'Caspian Sea nations' as another region like the E.U. The group will gain solidarity and cohesion by uniting against the common enemy, the west, specifically America. Now you may not grasp the magnitude of the threat without considering that they possess one very important 'weapon', and that is oil. If this region gains the monopoly on oil, you can bet the rest of the world is going to be groveling at their feet.
Want to know where Putin is really heading? Ask the 'other' option in Russia. Gary Kasparov, leader of the Opposition movement of Russia known as 'The Other Russia', is a pragmatic man. He should be. He was a chess champion for 15 years; smart, strategic. He knows his party will not be elected at the upcoming Russian elections; nevertheless he heads the party in the hopes that Russia will, at least, have elections.
A guest of honor at the European Ideas Network
in Warsaw last week, Mr. Kasparov (pictured) crystallized what Putin is really about.Putin doesn't run a country, he runs a corporation. He is the ugliest mixture of Karl Marx and Adam Smith. He is not interested in restoring Russia's influence, he's just interested in Gazprom's and Rosneft's influence. Actually, Putin is destroying the Russian state. If we look at the functions of the state, they are gradually transferred to the state companies: Now the Duma voted that Gazprom and Rosneft can have its own armies. These so-called state companies are run by Putin and his KGB-buddies - him being a sort of "capo di tutti capi." And for those doing business with KGB Inc., I remind them that the KGB shareholders are very active shareholders.
Selling nuclear technology to Iran is good - you get money and create tensions - selling missiles to Hezbollah through Syria serves the same purpose. North Korea causes trouble? Excellent! In Putin's view, everything that will raise the oil price is good. But oil money is the main sponsor of terrorism. If we look at a map of the world, most of the dictatorships are based on oil.
And oil is the big motivator for Putin. A monopoly on oil will give Russia the power to basically name their price for oil. When the price of oil rises, the power of the west will seep into those who are the global vendors of this precious commodity because we are all wedded to our oil dependent vehicles.
If the price of oil falls under 50 dollars a barrel, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to predict that the regime will fall. But even if the price of oil stays high, the regime will collapse. The problem with this regime is that the oil money disappears, you can't find it in Russian banks or investments. You can find it anywhere from Riga til London, but not in Russia. The Russian banking system is shaky, the infrastructure is old and rusty, from Soviet times, pipelines need investments badly, but nothing of this sort is being done. Inevitably, this will lead to a political crisis.
This sheds new light on Putin's recent trip to Iran. It was about none other than Putin's resolve to fight off any threat to the region's oil monopoly. Recently, a group of Balkan countries united to fight the Russian monopoly on oil supplies:
The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Poland, Ukraine and host nation Lithuania looked on as government ministers and state oil company bosses inked an accord creating the “Sarmatia” consortium, which is to build the new network. Most ex-communist countries — and much of the rest of Europe — rely heavily on energy imports from Russia. Many are seeking to diversify their energy suppliers amid fears that Russia is increasingly exploiting its oil and gas market dominance to try to tame governments which fail to toe Moscow’s line.
This Putin cannot allow. And talk is that the U.S. are backing this undermining of Putin's dominance. Back to Putin's trip to Iran:
Putin did not name any specific country, but his statement underlined Moscow's strong opposition to U.S.-backed efforts to build pipelines to deliver hydrocarbons to the West bypassing Russia.
"Projects that may inflict serious environmental damage to the region cannot be implemented without prior discussion by all five Caspian nations," he said.
Other nations bordering the Caspian Sea and in attendance at the summit are: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
The legal status of the Caspian — believed to contain the world's third-largest energy reserves — has been in limbo since the 1991 Soviet collapse, leading to tension and conflicting claims to seabed oil deposits.
Iran, which shared the Caspian's resources equally with the Soviet Union, insists that each coastal nation receive an equal portion of the seabed. Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan want the division based on the length of each nation's shoreline, which would give Iran a smaller share.
That the U.S. led Balkan move to fight the dominance of the so-called Caspian nations of the oil supply is crucial, vital, essential! Not only the oil supply of the world is at stake here, and the cost and supply of this commodity, but we could be facing a Russia/ Islamist alliance which could, effectively bring the world groveling to its knees before our new harsh overlords.
SOURCE: Transatlantic Politics and Yahoo News.
Spanish Pundit has different aspects of this situation.
Cross-posted here
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