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"Greece Is No One's Hostage": Leftist Energy Minister Lays Out €2 Billion Russian Gas Project
The prospect of a so-called “Russian pivot” by Greece still hangs over Angela Merkel’s head.
The conflict in Ukraine and the attendant economic sanctions imposed on the Kremlin combined with the EU’s anti-trust proceedings against Gazprom have raised the geopolitical stakes of a Grexit. Merkel has repeatedly warned that the consequences of Greece exiting the eurozone go far beyond short-term financial turmoil and political contagion (e.g. the spread of the Syriza “germ”).
And Vladimir Putin is acutely aware of the opportunity.
"Just because Greece is debt-ridden, this does not mean it is bound hand and foot, and has no independent foreign policy,” Putin said earlier this year, as tensions between Athens and Brussels intensified.
The prospect of a BRICS loan aside, any Russian aid to Greece will likely be connected to Gazprom’s Turkish Stream pipeline project which we’ve discussed in great detail in the past. Here’s a brief recap:
Greece has received what The New York Times recently described as “dueling sales pitches” on two proposed natural gas pipelines. One proposal comes from Russia, where the Kremlin is keen to use the tumultuous negotiations between Athens and creditors to advance Moscow’s energy and geopolitical interests. Moscow hopes to essentially buy Athens’ participation in the Turkish Stream pipeline which, as a reminder, will allow Russia to bypass Bulgaria by piping gas through Turkey, then through Greece, Serbia, and Hungary straight to the Austrian central hub. The US proposal involves The Southern Gas Corridor, a project aimed at “improving the diversity of the EU’s energy supply” — in other words, it’s an attempt to help break Gazprom’s stranglehold. Essentially, the corridor will allow the EU to tap into Caspian gas via a series of connecting pipelines running from Azerbaijan to Italy.
Greek Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis does not view the deals as mutually exclusive and as such, proceeded to ink an MOU with Russia for the Greek portion of the Turkish Stream line on June 18 in St. Petersburg.
On Thursday, Lafazanis mapped out the details of the deal in a speech FT says may serve to aggravate PM Alexis Tsipras’ attempts to strike a deal in Brussels this weekend. Here’s more:
Greece has mapped out details of a landmark €2bn gas project with Russia, a scheme that could stir tensions with Brussels just as Athens seeks a third bail-out.
Panayiotis Lafazanis, the firebrand leftist energy minister, presented the project to Greek energy executives on Thursday in a defiant speech, vowing that Athens would not be pushed around by EU institutions, writes Christian Oliver.
EU policymakers are concerned that Russia could take advantage of the crisis to pull Greece deeper into its orbit and pipeline politics is critical to relations between the two nations.
Athens and Moscow say their new project, the so-called South European Pipeline, will bring 47 billion cubic metres of Gazprom's gas into Europe by 2018. Mr Lafazanis promised that it would create 20,000 much needed jobs in Greece.
This promised deal with Russia is a sharp rebuke to Brussels, which wants to reduce dependence on Gazprom and argues that southeastern Europe should diversify its supply by prioritising gas from Azerbaijan.
Lafazanis also took the opportunity to make it clear that Syriza's Left Platform (which he leads) will not allow Tsipras to squander Greece's historic "Oxi" vote by accepting a deal that effectively negates the referendum:
"Greece is no-one's hostage. The Greek people's No vote, and I am referring to all of the people, is not going to become a humiliating Yes."
It certainly looks as though the PM will face an uphill battle in convincing party hardliners to accept an unpopular deal, making it even more likely that Grexit will effectively begin on Monday, paving the way for the "other guys" to step in with a rescue plan.
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The german chancellor and the fin min have been told what is expected of them
Watch for the globalists to throw in a Ukraine scenario before the BRICS switchover is completed: http://redefininggod.com/2015/07/globalist-agenda-watch-2015-update-59-u...
~""Greece Is No One's Hostage": Leftist Energy Minister Lays Out €2 Billion Russian Gas Project"~
Yeah well, just wait until you owe the Russians for a winter's worth of NG (which you can't pay for), and then you'll see if you're somebody's hostage or not.
The Russians would would let unpaid gas bills slide, as long as they got a few military bases in Greece. Same deal as Ukraine had, until they decided to be serfs of USSA.
that's kind of assuming that Greece start siphoning gas off the pipeline like mad, as Ukraine was instructed to do.
Greece would get transit fees for the much larger quantity of gas heading to northern Europe. That would seriously offset the bill for local gas consumption. Gazprom has also started doubling the capacity of Nord Stream so there will be two high capacity routes to Europe. This will minimise the risk of one side trying to do a Ukraine.
Just as the current administration has been the best for gun sales, they have also been the best for increasing Putin's prestige around the world and China's self confidence
The gun sales base on quality and superiority, i think.
But you are right, it goes hand in hand.
"EU policymakers are concerned that Russia could take advantage of the crisis to pull Greece deeper into its orbit and pipeline politics is critical to relations between the two nations."
Does the EU want to be paid back or not? This deal may provide the funds to pay off some of those currently-worthless bonds in Berlin and Brussels.
Talk about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face . . .
It makes a lot of sense for the EU but the Nudelman crowd will try to fuck this up.
Makes more sense to work with Russia to get the natural gas out of the ground and end Europe's dependence on energy too but we'll see.
Noble had a massive energy find off of Cyprus...."suddenly Chprus got annihilated." Noble Energy hasn't done so well since either.
The European people have got to be pissed off at USSA spying on everybody and pushing people around to get their way.
Besides,2bil. is a drop in the old bucket.Wonder if the creditors would accept 2bil. and call it even!
it is better to default, and take the 2 bio. the day after.
Bankster Kibble agree but they look at it like they will lose control of their currency printing press which is the real prize/tool to control humanity.
The Greek people's No vote, and I am referring to all of the people, is not going to become a humiliating Yes."
It has already become a humiliating YES:
At a meeting with the European “institutions” today, Tsipras is set to present what he called, in a speech before the European Parliament yesterday, “credible reforms” for a “fair and viable solution” to the crisis in Greece. By this is meant an agreement that is acceptable to the European institutions, which are demanding harsh austerity measures in return for any further bailout funds.
Even as Tsipras spoke, Syriza’s new finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, dispatched a letter pledging to “immediately” impose a “comprehensive set of reforms and measures to be implemented in the areas of fiscal sustainability, financial stability, and long-term economic growth.” The letter refers to unspecified “tax reform-related measures” and “pension-related measures”—i.e., increases in regressive sales taxes and cuts in retirement benefits.
Far from acting upon the mandate that the overwhelming “no” vote gave him, Tsipras is continuing the policy of retreat and surrender that his Syriza-led government initiated from its first day in office. It is difficult to point to anything that the government is now doing that differs from what it would have done had the Greek people voted “yes” on the EU’s austerity demands.
The response of the government demonstrates that the referendum itself was called as a political maneuver, aimed at creating more favorable conditions for implementing the EU austerity program. Despite their nominal call for a “no” vote, Syriza officials had hoped that the conditions under which the referendum was held—including controls on bank withdrawals and a campaign of intimidation in the media—would produce a “yes” vote, foisting upon the Greek people responsibility for Syriza’s further capitulation to the European banks.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/07/09/syri-j09.html
Hey, let me tell you why: the 2 Billion from Vladimir is only good enough for around 20 days of salaries and pensions. What are they going to do next month? Convince Vladimir that they need another gas pipe?
I think that Tsipras is a careerist, two-faced git, and Useful Tool of TPTB. No wonder Varoufakis quit, or was fired. As I mentioned in an earlier post this AM*, which seemed to resonate with ZH voters...
"And yet the odd thing is, that Tsipras's body language shows that he's unhappy instead of happy about Nigel's inspirational speech.
Go figure. And if you add the fact that a couple of days ago he admitted that he thought and hoped that the Referendum would fail (No/Oxi) would lose, them maybe it indicates that he's not anti-EU, but pro something else.
Could that 'pro something else' be for the Statist to prevail, so that the Few can get richer, so that this Template of National Fleecing can continue and be implemented in other EU countries, like the PIIGS, etc?"
* http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-09/nigel-farage-destroys-eu-group-...
Thu, 07/09/2015 - 09:55 | 6289713 Kirk2NCC1701Varoufakis has a bio that reads like a Globalist turd; former Cambridge professor, Brookings Institute member... the guy's spent more time in the UK, US, and Australia in his life than he ever did growing up in Greece:
http://journal-neo.org/2015/07/03/what-stinks-about-varoufakis-and-the-w...
And the guy they replace him with? An Oxford-trained economist. This whole Syriza drama is a farce. A charade. Just look at the players.
That goes for this BRICS nonsense, too. If it wasn't already abundantly clear to those paying even miniscule attention, the BRICS have now announced their "top brass," which include Brazilian Executive Director of the IMF, Paulo Batista, and Zhu Xian, slated to be one of four Vice Presidents of the BRICS NDB. He also happens to be Vice President of the World Fucking Bank.
http://redefininggod.com/2015/07/globalist-agenda-watch-2015-update-51-g...
If you know it's all a big show that you have almost no influence upon, then sure, come on over to the Hedge and watch the fireworks. But half y'all are still treating this like it's not Globalist theatre, and that, to me, is even scarier than the color revolutions that are soon to plague Europe in this ongoing and scripted "East-West bait-and-switch."
Off topic:
Is everybody going to tune into MTV and watch the documentary about how white people destroyed America?
NEW MTV SHOW PUBLICLY SHAMES WHITE PEOPLE FOR “WHAT THEY’VE DONE IN AMERICA”http://www.infowars.com/new-mtv-show-publicly-shames-white-people-for-wh...
Everything turned to shit when Michael Jackson went white.
everyone was focused on his meds man when we should have sued his nose Dr
It just got shittier then, but it all started much, MUCH sooner.
Amerika is fuked, there is no hope.
Well there's hope, but it will be messy.
Sheeeeeeeeit...
I do not feel the slightest bit of guilt for being a honkey white cracka.
Nor do I feel privileged.
Most of us had to work our asses off to acquire what we have and to separate ourselves from the general dindu population and it's variants.
Most of us will also continue to do just that, regardless of the political winds, economy, etc...
Those complaining about white privilege have either squandered opportunity or crashed and burned along the way.
Remember: A worthless smooth talking piece of street trash managed to get to the White House.
So much for white privilege.
Brainwashing works.
Based on the best practices of Edward Bernays, and the adoption of those techniques by TPTB.
Just one look at the faces of the white self-haters on that video nauseates me.
Like sheep to the slaughter.
Moron Television? No thanks, I prefer to kill my brain cells in a fun way, like booze....
you know who owns MTV don't ya? So what was the reason Hitler had a hate on for some folks?
Murray Rothstein, aka Sumner Redstone, of conglomerate Viacom.
The experiment can now be called 100% success. The dumbing down and indoctrination of the young ones is now complete. I had a convo two evenings ago with two bubble heads in their late 20's
They were insistent that the 1980's were HORRIBLE time to live in USA, how there was blood running in the streets... and how everything is just fine and dandy now (thanks to King O). i was nearly speechless. I had to inquire WHERE they got their bizarre information from. They told me of a new TV show (I don't have TV for quite some time now so I am thankfully unable to partake of the indoctrination).
If my memory serves me correctly the new series begins with an "R" ...
So I told them I LIVED in the 1980's and although there were some small issues...by and large it was a very good decade to be a young adult (I graduated HS in 81)...
They weren't buyin' it. They told me I was wrong, I had everything wrong, the 80's were positively horrific and everything is so much better now. I’m like "WTF...REALLY....all this from the stupid box"?... you learned this from the Tee vee?
There are some seriously fucking stupid young ones out there. it goes well beyond brainwashing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwhxeaVfk3s
It's just fucking ridiculous. I grew up in the 80s (graduated in 81 too) and it was a pretty good time. A person could get away with a hell of a lot more back then.
...I would just add these were college "educated" kids... I call them kids anyway...
Interesting story! I graduated HS towards the end of the 80's and I can tell you without a doubt there were some good times back then. Have to add however, that the early 80's were much better and freer for young people. About halfway through HS Nancy Raygun came out with her "Just say no" crap and all of a sudden there were "drug free school zones" and "drug rallies" (misnomer?) and random drug testing. Of course, they only tested the cleanest kids to keep their stats clean. The drug war went whole hog afer Nancy did her press tour and the cops got meaner too. You could tell something changed, like some mass hysteria reprogrammed all the adults... kids following suit. All the heads went to vocational-technical schools instead where there was no expectation of "the good life", just work, "so start learning something useful" like welding or plumbing. I can't complain much about the 90's until everyone started carrying around cell phones and that "internet" thing took off.
We have to remember, these kids have never known a life outside of the social media, cell phones, and trash TV. The constant media assault on all platforms keeps them stupid. Those of us that are older remember a simpler time when there was only TVs, libraries, and land lines. And if you didn't grow up in a crack neighborhood, generally the only blood you saw was in very small amounts and usually caused by your own stupidity. Your story about these dumb kids scares me.
It's always darkest, just before the White.
Yeah can't wait. MTV long on propaganda as always. The jews and their nigger pets never stop with the white guilt, as though children of today (or last century for that matter) need to feel guilty about anything when all the freebies and leg-up programs out there are for these fuckheads who still cry for more.
He will likely make millions off the deal and don't want some outside EU group noticing. The pipeline will likely happen anyway.
... "... making it even more likely that Grexit will effectively begin on Monday, paving the way for the "other guys" to step in with a rescue plan."
... that's the way I see it ... the pipeline's future-earnings-made-available-soon will bridge the Greek economy ... and BRICS / AIIB funding would take over ...
So what's the problem. All nations, and states charge a fee for transit pipelines. If Ukraine was smart they would have made sure the Russian gas was safe.. but no... USA could not have that.
Greece should start looking for other investments as it is clear that Brussels are no than better than making a vassal of Greece.
What the hell is with this nutcase Tsipras and his needing to stay on the slave plantation?
Free hotel Notepads, and pens!
They got to him. He's been compromised*
* Bullied, Bribed, Blackmailed or Threatened. In that order of progression, until the desired outcome is reached. SOP, same as always.
It's the simplest explantion. All others would cause you to question his sanity or your own.
That is what John Perkins says. He said it in a July 3 article here on ZH. "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" is a classic and still applies to shenanigans today.
Paddy Powers version of the Grexit....
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJe12L0W8AAncO5.jpg
It is worth noting, although it usually is not, that Israeli companies and spooks are absolutely all over Azerbaijan - oil/gas, minerals, heavy weapons - the usual sort of thing you'd expect. But that no doubt results in additional pressures on Brussels and the EU.
Then there's that whole Leviathan find - also, strangely left un-discussed when it comes to gas supplies to Europe.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/israel-s-looming-gas-empire-require...
Paddy has NO Power ever since Martin McGuinness chose the UK Establishment over the People. The bookie PP is also a bed chum.
Syriza needs a NEW Leader.
In a very perverse way - the hard line of Germany works for them in another way without saying it: destroy NATO - with Greece out - Germany can opt out and forge their true natural geo-political ties with the Russians and Chinese
USA world threat of endless chaos and war using NATO as the vehicle of choice is over - which is good for the majority of Americans and the world
The natural buyer for Greece is not USA but China and Russia - the bridge loan stake for the equivalent of Chapter 11 reorganization is probably less than $20 Billion with the nationalized Greek Banks transferred as collateral to the chinese and russians to be paid back over ten years with a 1% Bank Transaction Tax - at the end of which sold back to the Greek people at cost.
The private bankster debt of the european banks - transferred to the public treasury 4 years ago - is transferred back to the banks and written off 100% and the remaining debt given a 70% haircut and paid back over 30 years - fuck them!
with a Drachma at 60% of the Euro at a starting value - the Greeks have a way for a solid export foundation. they trade into the Common Market with no tariffs free and clear and the Chinese get the Piraeus port and the Russans and get the pipeline
There is no problem here only normal debt write downs in Chapter 11 and the right partners who can see value - coupled with worldwide GEO Political realignment
This is a win, win, win except for the neo cons and the banksters
lets get it over with
oh and expect more fuckery, and expect the press to continue to play its role as propaganda organ for the Deep State, of course.
Ukraine Merges Nazis and Islamists
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/07/07/ukraine-merges-nazis-and-islamists/
They're supporting Al Qaeda, they're supporting ISIS, and they are advocating decades of war to remake the world for the Anglo-Zionist Imperium
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/09/anglozionist-short-primer-for-...
Can you truly imagine Hillary as President - with the ability to issue "executive orders" and the like?
I know doom porn sells, and its sort of a criticism of ZH... but all that aside - Hillary is, needless to say, frightening in her completely self-serving amorality...
But half the country is going to **vote** for the woman.
Why do you want to save a country like *that*??
So China loses 10 Greece's GDP's in 3 weeks, and the media is reporting on Greece about 10 to 1. Odd how the media wants us so focussed on the Greece situation... Almost like some gas-fueled oligarchy that has many tendrils in the media wants the peeps to push for things, such as possibly a vital pipeline, to go through Greece?
The EU criminal scum just shot their pentultimate wod at Greece by shutting the banking system down. The final desperate act would be the 'haircut'. Going back to the Drachma and making it worth something (backed by silver leased through trades deals) is the only reasonable counter measure to the Draghi/Junker final attempt to bring Greece back from Russia. These criminals gravely miscalculated when they assumed they would cripple Greece with debt to weaken them to the point of easy submission for their energy plans. The miscalculation was they, in true fascist scum style, underestimated the democracy of the Greek people, who responded by voting in people who would fight back.
A Silver Drachma would effectively end the EURO and end one of the most shameful chapters in European history.
Lafazanis is a man with the balls to take on this 'troika junta'.
FUCK ALL THIS KOWTOWING Tsipras and step aside if you're out of your depth here.
When he got rid of Varoufakis at the whim of the Bankers he showed his naivety or cowardice.
20,000 jobs for the Greeks. Spit my coffee all over the last keyboard. Where are you going to find 20,000 Greeks who have any skills for this kind of WORK. 2 billion Euro is the Capex price of pipe, installation, compressor stations and not the price of digging in Greece with a shovel and wheelbarrow for 20,000 Greeks. All the installation will be done by Putin's friends construction companies (no bid). I think the Keystone pipeline was estimated by analysts to create no more than 3,000 jobs.
And last but by no means least, this project is a long, long way off. What is this energy minister figuring? That he will buy one share of the BRICS bank and ask them for a huge loan until this project comes into fruition (if ever in his life time)
Whatever Dude! An escape from the Gestapo (AGAIN) is a MUST.
They might want to keep in mind when planning and building this, that the Aegean sea, Greece and Turkey down into Iran makes up the third most seismically active tectonic belt in earth's crust.
one big quake = lots of busted pipeline
EQ Hazard map:
http://www.preventionweb.net/files/3825_earthquakehazardN3.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Greece
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Turkey
The real problem in the USSA is "jew priviledge."
It's time to fire up the ovens.
I am going to start wearing my pants around my knees and see if my productivity drops.
That's RayShall Race. s/c
They're no one's hostage but gonna be somebody's bitch.