The death of Alexander Litvinenko reminds us how fortunate the world is for Vladimir Putin. An infinitely less bloody version of Stalin, his combination of political mastery and strategic incompetence guarantees us a safe Europe, a safe Asia, and a sa…

“During the 15 years of Ukraine’s independence, the numerous “successful understandings” brokered by Kravchuk-Kuchma should have been substituted (or at least alongside with those “understandings”) by alternative sources of energy and energy conserving technologies, including new accounting techniques. Had this been accomplished, the issue would not have arisen in the first place.”

Here is the article:
http://www2.pravda.com.ua/en/news/2005/12/12/4919.htm ...

Not forever though. Germany’s foreign minister has been visiting each of the Central Asian states over the past week to try to create some kind of comprehensive EU policy toward Central Asia for its EU presidency. A big part of that policy will be sourcing more and more of its natural gas from Russia via new export networks that will bypass Russia, decreasing its ability to force customers to pay whatever it wants. The point Chirol is, I think, trying to make, is that Russia is doing plenty to encourage Europe (as well as the Central Asian suppliers who would be delighted to be rid of having to go through Russia) to speed this up.

quite unfortunate, when you think about it. the west had 15 years to bring russia to its knees geopolitically and it has hardly done anything in that regard, giving it more carrots than beating it with a stick. as long as russia reacts in the same way it has done historically xenophobic and brutally offensive and as long as it holds the energy card… we’re pretty much screwed.

in terms of the payment.. ukraine and moldova are pretty bad examples, given that romania pays something like 248, i think. but then again we’re not in its near-abroad.