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How Russia Plans To Retaliate For The Saudi-Driven Collapse In Oil
A week ago we explained that yet another conspiracy theory, one involving virtually every geopolitical hotzone, from Saudi Arabia, to Russia, the United States, Qatar, Syria, ISIS, and Ukraine, has become fact when our speculation from last September, namely that the plunge in oil was an choreographed move between the US and the Saudis (even if Kerry realized - we hope - that it meant a recession for the US energy producing states and a collapse in the only vibrant US industry of the past decade: shale), one seeking to dislodge Russian control over the Syrian government and to facilitate the passage of a Qatar pipeline under Syrian territory.
This is what the NYT said: "Saudi Arabia has been trying to pressure President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to abandon his support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, using its dominance of the global oil markets at a time when the Russian government is reeling from the effects of plummeting oil prices."
The NYT added:
Saudi Arabia and Russia have had numerous discussions over the past several months that have yet to produce a significant breakthrough, according to American and Saudi officials. It is unclear how explicitly Saudi officials have linked oil to the issue of Syria during the talks, but Saudi officials say — and they have told the United States — that they think they have some leverage over Mr. Putin because of their ability to reduce the supply of oil and possibly drive up prices.
That's the quo. As for the quid, it is as we predicted:
Any weakening of Russian support for Mr. Assad could be one of the first signs that the recent tumult in the oil market is having an impact on global statecraft. Saudi officials have said publicly that the price of oil reflects only global supply and demand, and they have insisted that Saudi Arabia will not let geopolitics drive its economic agenda. But they believe that there could be ancillary diplomatic benefits to the country’s current strategy of allowing oil prices to stay low — including a chance to negotiate an exit for Mr. Assad.
"Russia has been one of the Syrian president’s most steadfast supporters, selling military equipment to the government for years to bolster Mr. Assad’s forces in their battle against rebel groups, including the Islamic State, and supplying everything from spare parts and specialty fuels to sniper training and helicopter maintenance."
To be sure, the Chairman of the Russian State Duma International Committee Alexei Pushkov promptly rejected all the NYT allegations, writing on his Twitter account:
“There were no negotiations with the Saudis to decrease oil production
in exchange for Moscow’s refusal to support Assad. Hoax.”
... but that was to be expected - after all it is not as if the two powers are on friendly terms, plus the NYT leak was meant to push the fulcrum of leverage away from Russia. What is certain, however, is that Putin couldn't care less about his "friend" Assad, but he cares very much about Gazprom preserving its near-monopolistic dominance as marginal energy provider to Europe of last resort, one which gives Russia as much leverage over the bulk of Europe as the ECB's printing press, if not much more: Draghi's outside money only reaches about 1% of the population; Gazprom's heat reaches everyone.
However, what is key in the above chain is that while the Saudis (and Qataris) have been orchestrating events in the middle east, using the US as a diplomatic patsy, one which has provided a convenient strawman over the past year in the form of ISIS, or the same anti-Assad jihadist rebels that the same US was arming actively as recently as late 2013, the US has been carefully managing the second front in the war of European energy dominance, that involving Ukraine.
It is not secret that the chain of events that have transpired in Kiev over the past year, starting with the coup of then president Yanukovich and the preceding "Euromaidan" violence were to a great extent orchestrated by the US as the infamous "Fuck the EU" recording revealed. Incidentally, "fucking the EU" is precisely what the US state department did, because the subsequent chain of events including economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure on Russia by the White House backfired, led to a plunge in European trade with Russia and was directly responsible for Europe's triple-dip recession of 2014. Well, it helped one group of people: the 0.1% who benefit from the subsequently start of Europe's own QE, whose proximal catalyst was none other than the western "isolation" of Russia.
But while so far the Ukraine gambit has backfired on the west - not completely: after all, one or more western buyers did manage to "acquire" all of Ukraine's dozens of tons of gold at firesale, or lower, prices - the Saudi escalation, which is about to lead to one or more state level recessions in US oil producing regions and then, to a major economic deterioration at the national level, has indeed managed to hurt Putin far more than any trivial developments involving Ukraine (which just so happens is now ex-Crimea thanks to Victoria Nuland's strategic brilliance).
As such, while Putin may be laughing about Obama's impotence to creat any impact on the foreign arena, and is generally oblivious to what the US lame duck president does, the same can not be said of Saudi Arabia, which is very clearly involved in the global proxy war which now stretches to several continents and many countries, and whose ultimate goal is a traditional one: energy.
And since it is a proxy war, as the US demonstrated when it involved Ukraine in what is really a fight over the future of European energy dependence (be it on Russia or Qatar), Russia has every right to contemplate how it may retaliate to any additional US escalation in Urkaine. In a proxy fashion.
Which is why we were rather shocked to read what the Moscow Times wrote in an article today, in which it said that "U.S. provision of military aid to Ukraine would be seen by Moscow as a declaration of war and spark a global escalation of Ukraine's separatist conflict, Russian defense analysts said. With Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine seizing new territory from the Ukrainian army, voices in Washington are demanding that Kiev be given defensive weapons and hardware — including lethal equipment — to hold the line."
But if such aid were sent, "Russia would reasonably consider the U.S. to be a direct participant in the conflict," said Evgeny Buzhinsky, a military expert at the Moscow-based PIR Center.
That is not the shocking part: in fact, it has been largely anticipated for a long time. What is, however, is the following stark admission that in the next round of retaliatory escalations, sparks will fly. Literall:
Russian defense analysts polled by The Moscow Times said unanimously that U.S. arms transfers to Ukraine would be interpreted in Moscow as a declaration of open proxy war with Russia and inevitably lead to escalation of the conflict.
"It would become tit-for-tat," said Maxim Shepovalenko, an analyst at the Moscow-based Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technology (CAST).
"Moscow will not just sit by calmly and see what happens, it will counteract," he said.
As for the target? Well, one could say they saw it coming from a desert away:
The Russian counterstrike could take the conflict far beyond Ukraine, according to the source on the Defense Ministry's public advisory board.
Pointing to one possible avenue of asymmetrical retaliation, the source said Moscow could give in to long-standing Chinese requests for sensitive defense technologies that would aid in its development of high-tech weapons capable of doing serious damage to U.S. naval forces in the Asia-Pacific. Moscow has so far declined China's requests on "politically correct pretenses," the source said.
The punchline:
"That's just one example. We can also encourage Iran, or even back Iran in a fight — a military operation — with Saudi Arabia, so then the prices for oil will skyrocket," the source said, explaining that these were just two possible responses.
Simple and elegant: if the US does everything in its power to deflect attention from the ongoing conflict for the control of Syria by backing a proxy civil war in Ukraine merely meant to keep Moscow off guard, a civil war that Ukraine and the west are now perilously close to losing, Russia will retaliate, but not in Kiev - that's irrelevant. It will do so where the pain to the west would be greatest: in Saudi Arabia, the place that is the true ground zero of all Russian hurt in the past 6 months, ever since oil started tumbling from $100, and continued following the historic collapse of OPEC on Thanksgiving Day 2014, where Saudi Arabia unilaterally decided to crush the price of oil indefinitely, or until Putin comes crawling, and begging for a Saudi oil supply halt, in exchange for al-Assad's head on a silver platter.
Well, that may happen... or if the US does arm Ukraine, Russia may just do everything in its power to take the proxy war away from Ukraine, and right into the hornets' nest of the House of Saud itself.
Taking all this into account, we would like to add to our oil-buying catalyst.
For those who want to know when to buy oil, the answer is simple: just after (or ideally before) Putin announces he will no longer support the Assad regime. If, that is, he ever does because that act will effectively destroy all leverage Putin may ever have over Europe, and in the process, also end - quite prematurely - his career. Until then, every single HFT-induced spike in oil is one to be ultimately faded, because as the past few months have shown, it is the Saudis who set the price, and they will not take no for an answer, even if it means crippling the entire US shale, and energy, industry in the process.
To this we will add: the moment Congress and/or Europe votes though a resolution to arm Ukraine with "lethal aid", that may be the time to go all-in crude, on margin. Because after that what has until now been a global proxy war will become far less proxy in a very short period of time.
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Here is what it was like today in the pocket or cauldron. Artic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uXznnG9Ou0
The endless steppe as the Germans called it. Rolling plains with very few places the Ukrianians can hide. The poor bastards supply line is cut and many will probably freeze to death. Very sad.
PS: for the person who down voted me - I am not pro-Ukie. I am anti-war and anti sending someone's kid off to be cannon fodder. Those Ukr conscripts do not want to be there.
The DPR/LPR NovoRussians are just kicking them out of their territory. Still, war is tragic and run by banksters.
I guess Saudi Arabi has been producing to much copper as well?
Suppose the Saudi's get what the NYT claims is their wish: that the Assad regime falls. Then who takes over in Syria? ISIS?
Because the US backed rebels don't seem to be a match for ISIS. Do the Saudi's really want an ISIS controlled Syria? I thought they were afraid of ISIS and were building a wall to keep them out.
Something in this narrative just doesn't make sense. Maybe the Saudi's were just trying to get Russia to agree to oil production cuts.
Maybe the narrative doesn't make sense because ISIS isn't what you think it is...
Air drop nesting dolls into hotspots.. Forced beet consumption...
Oh yeah, Russia has nothing.
Ukraine is already fully armed byNATO and has weaponry and training necessary.
It is all about the trigger
Necessary for what? Replacing Germany in its historical role of being fodder to destroy the Byzantine civilization?
How's your checkers avatar coming along?
What does Russia have to do with Byzantium?
I am orthodox and byzantinist.
Russia is no byzantine civilization. What are you talking about?
start here:
http://souloftheeast.org/2011/10/20/dark-hero/
http://souloftheeast.org/2014/03/30/ukraine-geopolitics-identity/
third rome............my ass
Very erudite reply.
You have a link to support that bullshit?
Anybody who asks for proof and links has no clue
Dude, seriously though, pics or it didn't happen.
You want pics of covert operations?
Lovely
" training necessary. "
this is a joke right?
read something besides the MSM. wake up
EKM, neither AFU nor the neo-nazi bandits have the necessary training to win engagements against lightly armed NR partisans.
Last year they lost the only elite formation they had, the airmobile brigade, which was destroyed at Saur graves and Ilovaysk (and then promptly self-disbanded in disgust).
They can be fully armed by US, Poland and Germany reunited, it does not change the fact that they lost their artillery and air superiority.
I wouldnt believe it last december, but they are in process of losing their armor advantage, trains of T72s from Poland notwithstanding, as the problem with tanks is that you need trained tankists to operate them, and once all your tankist reserve is either dead or in Kharkovs hospitals with 3rd degree burns, you have to cram unwilling conscripts into your machines - with predictable results.
Moreover, whatever remains of old regular formations does not want to charge into russian artillery barrages, just so Kolomojski keeps his cashflow at the same level as in 2014.
The US state dept can send any weapons they currently have in their inventories, Javelins or M1a2HA s, the results will be rigorously the same; either the items will be sold outright to any interested parties, or they will add to the glorious rust of german might already sleeping there.
Oh, and those kids playing at being Waffen SS....innocents seeking an identity, as teenagers are wont to do, given weapons and infused with hatred by criminal minds,then sent into the meatgrinder to protect chosenite interests...
There are no more countries,there's only banks..There are no more governments,there's only central banks..
And the central banks are run by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.
rothschild.
The US will fight to no end to protect the petrodollar.
US oligarchs may have already given up on the US. They may be ready to shift their focus else where. The US economy is so bad that no one is willing to admit how bad it is because if they did they may not get their pensions.
Asia
It'd be alot easier for Russia to just do a deal with Greece to drop the Euro and print Drachmas.
Sarajevo 1999
Belsan 2004
Georgia 2008
Volgograd 2013
Ukraine 2014
Paybacks a bitch! And Russia while you're at it...
Why not make a "sister" glass skating park out of that city that is 32.0833° N, 34.8000° E that pulls all the strings for that little Wahhabi whore it owns?!!!
And last but not least only if the first two don't get the job done that is 38.8951° N, 77.0367° W... Make it a sister island next to Chincoteague!!!
In case you couldn't guess....
32.0833° N, 34.8000° E
38.8951° N, 77.0367° W
Russian defense analysts polled by The Moscow Times said unanimously that U.S. arms transfers to Ukraine would be interpreted in Moscow as a declaration of open proxy war with Russia and inevitably lead to escalation of the conflict.
I would say they are correct to interpret this as an act of war. There is no, I repeat, NO evidence Russian troops are in eastern Ukraine. There are no pictures, interviews or videos. The Ukrainian army, which is nothing more than neo-nazi fascist pigs, are indiscriminantly killing old men, women and children all over eastern Ukraine. For people who are behind what is going on in Ukraine, I hope there is a special place in hell for them. The fact that so many in the US are so fucking ignorant about this or just don't give a shit really shows how far down the shitter this turd of a society has gone. I hope when the collapse finally comes, the people of eastern Ukraine and others around the world whose lives have been destroyed by the psychopaths in the US government, CIA, MIC, EU, Mossad, the bankers and probably countless others, get to at least see justice come in the form of, not death, but these people forced to live out the rest of their lives closed in prison camps, without money, without power and influence, without nothing but the prison jump suits covering their asses. A fate worse than death for these people would be to be reduced to zero and have to live with each other in the poverty of a prison camp, caged in like the animals that they are.
What's the point of being in denial of Putin's involvement in Ukraine?
Oh, well, I guess if you say they are involved it must be true. How silly of me to think otherwise. I have seen the error of my ways.
Of course there are Russian troops in Ukraine you gotta be naive not to know so! is the "Russian Military in Ukraine?" no! for if they were this fight would be over in 72 hours or less and kiev Poroshenko would proly suicide himself if he cant "GET TO THE CHOPPA!"
Saudi is drilling like mad. They are in this for the long haul.
ooohhh..scary! Russian military technology...ask Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Iran how well that shit actually works. LET them sell shit to China. That might check the dicktastic impulses of US defense contractors who think they should sell the fucking world to China. LET the Russians sell their half baked crap to the chinks. Good luck with that aircraft carrier, Charlie Chan! It only took the US Navy 70 years to perfect it...
F35. no cannons til 2020. LMAO
aircraft carriers. the new coral reefs. floating coffins
aegius cruisers, no electronics.
at least one ussa soldier suicide/day.
go get 'em tiger. lol
So, Assad is fighting ISIS, which would likely be beneficial to any Christians in Syria, yet we want him gone and Russia supports him...............
because of a pipeline.............
sad but true https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8MO7fkZc5o
11.3 11.5 ?
And a better Metallica clip for all you Russia fans : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QP-SIW6iKY
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-10/surreal-sinister-world-2015-acc...
and an even better Metallica clip for all you Ruskie fans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFqjDXy9s5A
also try IP's 11.3.11.5 or 11.5.11.3
Tyler, Kerry wants to collapse the US. It has been the plan of the Forbes' since they arrived off the Mayflower.
I seriously doubt the saudi's price cuts were targeted at Russia. My charts indicate it highly unlikely oil will recede much below the 50-55 $ level, just low enough to ignite the junk bonds financing shale production. If it were otherwise oil would be at $35 now.
Time will tell.
each advance is in russias sphere of influence, that is obvious. now s.a. agrees to sacrifice price for what? what are they getting? moar enemies? future price as lone swing producer til the patch reramps-yea?. as far as assad goes- it is strengthening russias' resolve. i think we are missing some pieces to this puzzle.
to much speculation.
time to resolve some sleep issues...
"... the moment Congress and/or Europe votes though a resolution to arm Ukraine with "lethal aid", that may be the time to go all-in crude, on margin. Because after that what has until now been a global proxy war will become far less proxy in a very short period of time...."
Or not. The reports today on draft resistance in Ukrane and the closing of the last possible escape route for the trapped Ukraine forces at Debaltsavo suggest it's much too late for Congress to save the Ukraine fascist government with "lethal aid'. It has no hope of fielding an army that can beat the separatists, and it's going down, soon. Russia can therefore afford to make a stink about it while waiting, maybe allowing the shipment of more advanced weapons to the Donetsk.
What will be required now to force more direct Russian involvement is US and NATO combat units openly inserted on the ground backed by US air power. Even then, the political consequences in Europe could take on a life of their own, but you might go in on crude then, no more than you can afford to lose.
Supporting a proxy war on Russia's border is a big mistake.Over 700 mobile-tactical nuclear weapons specifically made for the battlefield.
Russian defense analysts polled by The Moscow Times said unanimously that U.S. arms transfers to Ukraine would be interpreted in Moscow as a declaration of open proxy war with Russia and inevitably lead to escalation of the conflict.
U.S. arms transfer to Ukraine?... Already signed sealed and delivered! John just failed to mention the "white phospherous"!!!
WTF???!!!
I heard somewhere this morning John McCain making a plea to send weapons to the Ukrainian army because they are forced to use cluster bombs on the people of eastern ukraine because they did not have enough weapons. McCain is a real loathsome piece of shit. How the FUCK does this cocksucker keep getting re-elected?
No no, he truly is a humanitarian. Ukraine is forced to use cluster bombs (banned by many countries) because the US does not supply them with other weapons. Supply these other weapons and then they can kill people with these instead of cluster bombs. It is a more 'humane' death. He deserves a Noble peace prize for more humanely killing people.
diebold
He gets re-eected by cocksuckers,that's how.
A short chronological thesis on the world oil markets, and, their reprecussions...?
A great read! Note: This read with graphs hits at the heart of geopolitics married to energy-- too the point explicitely and implicitely, connecting the dots from the past to the present, even if late 2011 was the final year of analysis. Ps. USSR /Russian oil graph bottom page is interestion coincidence?
http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm
'Nothing changes? Does it! A century frozen in fossils til the long past becomes our future selves to sustain the next darwian cycle?'
also, if in for reading moar... "Middle Eastern Oil: An Historical Perspective and Outlook" Note: Dated May 26, 2003 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/918168/posts
Note: Diversions, diversions, and moar diversions! Perhaps Mr Lynch will keep prodding the cowardly congress to fess-up? http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/02/09/release-the-entire-report/ghXbHlcGBcB30z0M07ylqN/Story.html
Sorry about above link: just click top-nav-bar 'opinion' and your there :(
Just for fun, let's consider the Saudis aren't behind the glut, that Russia and Iran are. Russia, selling oil in rubles receives about the same when oil is low and 70/1 Rub/US$. Russia isn't hurting because they aren't selling in US$. Saudis are hurting, their fields on the decline, US is hurting, shale states collapsing. Also extraction costs are ~$10/bbl in Russia, they're still making money just not as much. So it occurs to me to wonder if Russia isn't behind the collapse in POO and US and Saudis just playing damage control.
Putin is honestly pretty stupid. Iran, Russia, and Greece are all broke. All Obama would have to do is ask congress to pass a bill subsidizing US shale producers and Republicans in congress would do it in a heartbeat.
Imagine a bill that for the next three years made US shale producers whole on a barrel of oil up to $80. You could flood market with oil and definitely drive it below $20 a barrel. It wouldn't even be a trade violation since we don't export oil.
Putin seriously should go talk to China so they can give him a lesson on how this game is played because he can't seem to figure it out. The only thing that Putin has going for him is that he is going up against Obama.
Russia broke - grow up.
Iran, Russia, and Greece are all broke.
Great point. Good thing the US isn't broke, only 20 trillion (low estimate) in debt.
US is rich I just found out that only 85 million are under food stamps.
The figure reported is close below 50 million. Where do you get the 85 from?
converted to metric
The White House uses the SNAP unit of measure for capturing real time averages. Didn't they teach that to you in common core math class?
/sarc
what about this?
I'm sure Exxon, Chevron, etc, who never make political contributions (sark), would really love $20 a barrel oil.
You outrank Putin when it comes to honestly pretty stupid.
what planet do you call home. lmao
Soon Russia bombers will be right at Washington doorstep.
Russian Defense Minister to Visit Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua This Week.
Glad to hear that. Oh, BTW, this seemed like a key move to me a couple of months ago...
.
Wed, 12/03/2014 - 11:16 | 5512665 new noben
If, as they stated, Russia will respond Asymmetrically, then perhaps it's time to have a Rapid Response Force and Naval Base in balmy Venezuela.
Wed, 12/03/2014 - 11:48 | 5512831 noben
I thought about that, but realized that Cuba has no oil, gas or gold to protect from the Goldman Sacks & Pillage.
Given that Venezuela has a lot of beauty queens (Miss World, Miss Universe), it might be good for the morale of the troops to have them stationed there. Otherwise Venezuelans might soon be electing 'Miss Oil'.
Fri, 01/09/2015 - 18:35 | 5644025 new noben
If I were Putin, I'd upgrade the naval base in Cuba, and put one in Venezuela
Remember how SA threatened to disrupt the Olympic games in Sochi if Russia would not drop Assad?
Now Russia indirectly threatens SA by supporting Iran. The fight in the ME is about Sunni vs. Shiite, about SA vs. Iran. And it is about oil and gas of course and keeping dollar king. But a defeat or attack on SA would trigger WWIII.
Back in the eighties I read Tom Clancy's "Red storm rising". The scenario is different now but the danger is just as real.
Funny thins is, that would all evaporate (and cause a new set of problems) if somebody would invent something simple that nobody ever thought of that would make our cars run on let's say on our morning urine.
How about thorium? Oil would be obsolete. It is because we are not using thorium that convinced me that the world is run by money mad psycopaths.
You must work for the US tax subsidized car company called Government Motors. Comrade, that car is a fucking eye sore.
WTF?
http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/cadillac-word-thorium-concept-2009-01-15
The credibility of this story rests on the assumption that the low oil price is hurting Russia and that the Russians are reluctant to sell military equipment. Both assumptions are at least not 100% correct. Russia has relatively low pumping cost. A higher price would have positive effects but Russia looks to benefit like Saudi Arabia from a destruction of comeptitors in the US, Canada and Europe that will not make it through the oil price depression. Weighing the disadvantages and advantages of the current situation for Russia I would presume that Moscow has prudently decided to wait until the competitors are crushed and significant financial damage has been caused in the US. Russia (which allegedly has failed to diversify its industries) is the close second largest arms exporter after the US and has probably the superior price performance to offer. The Russian record of arms sales do not rest on the pillar of much reluctance and I believe they are happy to sell most of their military products to partners, at least after they were sufficiently field-tested in the Ukraine. If the US would decide to donate (PLEASE don't sell because the Europeans would have to foot the bill) advanced military equipment to Kiev the world would witness the direct comparison of US and Russian military equipment in the proxy war.
Aaaarrrrggghhhh
When will the fucking conspiracy shit stop.
Fucking oil price is determined by the number of buyers over sellers.
Period. BDI is at over 30 year lows, a hundred trillion of malinvesmetment from the fucking Fed to China and fucking bumboy obummers penchant for printing to hand free shit everywhere to buy his fucking half wit voters.
The fucking global economy is contracting, period, or is it a fucking SA Russian Fed conspiracy to gut iron ore, copper, cement, shipping rates, lumber futures, coal and every other fucking thing that is collapsing at just about a .9999 R^2 correlation to oil.
No one is buying oil today to store to fuel the build of the next 1,000 cities worldwide on fake ponzi debt anymore.
Which is why no fucker is buying iron ore, copper or any other basic that needs to be bought now for delivery in se2veral years after the planning is completed.
There is no fucking money left. only debt and the only fucking way to make commodities prices rise is to create global demand with real fucking earned income and profits, culled from an honest days work using sound money that costs you to borrow and is not free, thus rendering it fucking worthless, and real savings generated from that to finance it.
The party is over. Oil and iron ore just happen to be right in the front-line when future price is decided by the long term buyers who have specific plans and finance in place to build.
And we know what fucking happens when you hand free shit money in the trillions all over world. The fucking gangsters get it and the bureaucrats and the fucking lying corrupt pols steal it and buy votes and build fucking useless shit to cover the planet like crumbling airports no one ever uses and third rate roads to nowhere and fucking ghost cities.
The reset is under way, It is that simple.
Everything else is fucking idiots tryng to spin thier version of it and hope they get a mention.
But the real story, the fucking collapse of the global economy is what they will never admit to. Because the fucking theives that caused it, get hung out to dry in the sun then.
all that yap
sellers over buyers
You're backwards
Pump On
Partly right BUT mostly BS!
The Oil price was obviously manipulated down by traders using leverage the same as the POG is managed.
The SPEED of the fall in Oil prices alone makes your comment above null & void. Did you think that all at once people all over the World suddenly stopped using more fuel ? If so the Syney Harbour Bridge is for sale & I'll let you have it for a song -- interested ?
So thats your little consiracy theory is it,
That oil traders the world over conspired together to do it..
Notwithstanding the fact that traders do everything they can to make profits, you believe that shit obviously.
You really do believe in fairies and unicorns don't you.
Cretin
Russia could have retaliated by demanding "Gold for Oil", but the Saudi oil dump front-runs that option: why would anyone pay gold for oil, when the Saudis will take fiat FRNs?
BTW, do Saudi kings fly overseas? I guess they don't use Malaysian airlines, so there's little chance of the Royal plane disappearing over the ocean or falling out of the sky.
You want to see Russian retaliation?
Keep your pants on and make some moar pop corn.
One day all the pop corn on the planet is going to be Microwaved in one great big ball of heat at the same time. Unfortunately there will be nobody left to Eat it..
I'm sure you remember the first law of thermodynamics.
Neither energy, nor heat nor pop corn is ever lost.
In some parallel universe some being, unlike you and me, will be relaxing in a parallel Laz-y-Boy enjoying gigantic shovel scoops of earth based pop corn and watching a brilliant Supernova on "The Universe Has Talent". And finally when the jumbo bowl of popcorn is empty that being will say:
"Honey, will you throw another cornfed solar system in the microwave for me."
I remember, that the Saudis contacted Russia for the issue of higher oil prices before Sotchi Games. They said, that they have the control over terrorism events that could happen in Sotchi. The Russians said ´thanks for that info. Now we know whose oil fields we have to bomb if anything happens in Sotchi´
Means, they have a history, and Russia could be very shortfused now.
Some reality to consider:
- Western refining capacity is overwhelmingly geared towards Light Sweet Crude (LSC) Oil
- Saudi Arabia no longer can provide LSC in any useful quantity
- LSC oil production comes mostly from Iraq, Libya and Nigeria
- In the past 15 years, Saudi Arabia oscillated between 4th and 8th supplier of oil to the largest consumer of oil on the planet - the USA
- Saudi Arabia oil production is unchanged - every time SA claimed to be willing to act as swing producer in the past 10 years, the production never increased significantly (i.e. they can only jaw bone)
- Saudi Arabia's loss of revenue from a drop in oil prices is far greater than the money they would need to fully equip their proxies with helicopters,tanks, rockets and even ships to throw against Assad
And for the cherry on the cake that few can believe...
- Saudi Arabia, a country of 22 million souls, that is 95% desert and that produces nothing of economic value, consumes as much oil as Germany
...
You do the math...
Russia should start disrupting the US narcotics industry.
Expose their money laundering operations.
Expose the hidden economy.
If Assad-Syria falls, the Russians will arm/support Iran, to counter act Bibi who is itching (again) to bomb Iran before the (Israeli) elections.
Oh?
So now it is all about energy?
What about the 'long string of provocations' and 'unreliable western partners'?
(shhhh... don't mention that Russia stiffed those western partners for an amount equal to the GDP of Ukraine, Poland, and all the baltics...combined!!!)
So... it is no longer about The Great Innocent being bullied?
Now it is about energy dominance in Europe...as I've been saying to huge numbers of negative votes for the last 18 months???
Also...
What's with asserting that the New York Times or Moscow Times have the power to confirm any conspiracy?
The main difference between those two rags and the National Enquirer is that the Enquirer SOMETIMES gets it right while the other two EXIST FOR THE PURPOSE OF SPREADING MISINFORMATION - and can be taken for granted as NEVER telling the unvarnished truth.
How about this truthiness? Governments around the world have stuck so many fingers into the economic pie that they've spoiled it. The global economy is now rotting. Then they lie about it with false statistics gallore...or accusations that some Great Satan has spoiled their little UTOPIA.
NEWS FLASH!!!! It was reality that spoiled the Utopia. ALL THE GOVERNMENTS' POLICIES IN THE WORLD ECONOMICALLY SUCK, NOT JUST ONE OR TWO GOVERNMENTS. And the main difference between them is whether they lie about the economic results of their policies or lie about the causes of their economic problems.
Governments aren't the only criminals in the world. But they are the organizations with the most consistently criminal behavior...it is simply part of the DNA of such coercive beasts.
Putin has always had the option to use Iran as a proxy in making war. If he gets it going then his oil pipelines will be no more useful than the Saud's. You can't pump what is broken and in flames.
I sincerely DOUBT that Russia will allow China to get their miliary technology. If history is any guide both countries have had a love-hate relationship. No one knows when this current honeymoon will end but it will end and should Russia be stupid enough to give China their tech, that will be it for them.
Despite the current diplomatic foreplay that we see between the two states, there is a lot to be cautioius about as well. In the east, thereare millions of Chinese in Russia illegally and this is proving to be a big headache for Putin. Many in China now believe that that entire region rightly belongs to China and that Russia should cede it. China also has its sights set on Central Asia.
So I doubt that Russia will give China their prized military technology. After all, the two will not play footsie forever and it is a matter of time before they get another divorce. Russia remembers the last time they gave China technology - China developed their own weapons with it. So NO. I doubt Russia will be as stupid again.
Russia, doesn't need to do anything. Russia, doesn't have to do anything. The Russian people had a really good harvest last year, unlike when Stalin and the Jewish Communist were running things in Russia, the Russian people are eating good. Russia's economy is as good as anywhere else, why should the Russians do anything? The idea that Russia even wants to do anything about the price of oil is just propaganda, a part of the brainwashing of the American peoples; actually, Russia is doing quite well and she doesn't want any trouble with the American Jewish Lobbies who are just lusting for a bloody, all out, murderous war with Russia. As though five hundred trillions of dollars of wealth is just not enough wealth for the Rothschild's led money lender's mafia. Hopefully, and with the help of the Russian Government the Jewish plot to cull our populations will just have to wait.
I wonder just how much the Rockefellers have to do with anything. The Rockefellers are American born, they should help America when America is struggling with the Rothschild arm of war for profit. The Rothschilds are aliens to America so I sort of understand their position, but, the Rockefellers are our American people and though they don't have nearly the wealth the foreign Rothschilds have, still, the Rockefellers have made enough off of Americans so they should do something to protect us and our Constitution from this invasion of foreigners.
This is conspiracy theory that has veered to the extreme. Saudi is interested in market share. All collateral damages from the price of oil have to be negotiated in a each nation for itself World.
Putin is not stupid to ignore his oil dependent economy and go beserk with too many proxy wars. He is making a statement that has so far been effective for the price paid in the short term.
Ineffective sanctions and a muddled Europe which is a garden of fresh fruits that will have to be shared with US Predators.