The Energy Bully Can’t Be Stopped!

Yes, Vladimir Putin will move from President of Russia to Prime Minister of Russia, then back to President in 2012. It’s Putin-mania!

Anyone else uncomfortable with a former KGB-dictator running Russia? It seems Canada’s not happy, especially that Russia claimed half of the North Pole. What we need, in the words of Tina Turner, is a hero.

Enter Gary Kasparov, former Chess champion and Grand Master! Hey, chess grand masters are like rock stars in Russia. I’m sure he’ll do well, but President? Probably not.

The West needs reliable solar power now, before Russia chokes off power supplies to Europe through a monopoly of energy resources.

The Energy Bully Gets Its Ducks in a Row

Looks like Vladimir Putin is setting up the government to continue on its current strategy to regain regional supremacy. He’s dissolved the Russian Government and it looks like he’ll be reforming it with either his Big Crony Sergei Ivanov or Gazprom Executive Dmitry Medvedev. Ivanov is ex-KGB, so I’d look to him to be the next President, and then put Medvedev in as PM. That way you have Putin’s influence reigning in both locations. (UPDATE: It’s neither– it’s Viktor Zubkov, someone who’s been working with Putin since 1992. It’s no surprise, then. I’m sure Zubkov is well acquainted with the energy strategy being employed by Putin.)

Putin’s plan is to establish an energy monopoly and use that power to squeeze its weaker neighbors. The recent military flexing is more of a show for China than it is for the US, and indicator not to underestimate the Russian military and beware any military action to try and seize (perceived) Russian energy assets.

Putin’s not stupid. He knows that he can “rule” the East by controlling its energy input. He needs to find reserves of hydrocarbons and control them, or establish alliances with energy-rich countries (like Iran) to secure a steady flow of oil. If it can deny direct sales to China, Russia can then influence Chinese policy through energy trading. It’s already got a stranglehold on the former Russian republics, and it’s working on former Eastern-bloc countries as well.

The Seizing of the Arctic

Russia is making a symbolic gesture and will be planting a flag at the North Pole– claiming nearly the whole thing and the resources that lay below the water.

It’s an interesting idea, and I wonder how much opposition they’ll really face. But given the resources in the Arctic, it’ll really solidify Russia’s energy needs for decades to come. And it will allow them to become an even bigger energy exporter. And we all know how Gazprom and Russia have been acting towards their neighbors and selling their energy.

From Russia with Love

Our favorite ex-KGB agent, Vladimir Putin, is in the news and following up with his strategy for domination of Europe and Asia through energy market manipulation.

Putin made calls this week to scrap the architecture of the G8 (a funny thing to say while attending a G8 summit) to include other nations, mainly China. It’s a reasonable request, actually, as China has certainly progressed to the head of the world economic stage. In addition, it’s reasonable to consolidate the UK, France, Italy and Germany into one unit to represent the EU.

But why is Vladimir so eager to get China recognition? It boils down to energy.

China’s energy demands are skyrocketing. One estimate said the Chinese are building one coal-fired energy plant a week in 2007. I’m sure Al Gore’s not too happy about that, but if China wants to be an industrialized partner in the G8, it needs energy to support the 1.2 billion people and the economy that comes with them.

Russia has been strategically consolidating regional power assets in Gazprom, and it’s something I’ve been blogging about for a while now. By putting a stranglehold on natural gas, oil, and coal resources (and trust me, Russia is full of them), Russia can control other states by controlling their energy needs.

Putting all of your eggs into one basket isn’t a smart move, and the Eastern European nations, as well as some Asian nations, have diversified their energy needs to other companies. However, Putin has been making great strides in absorbing those assets into Gazprom. We’ve already gotten a taste of how he’ll act when he has even more control of foreign energy markets. And if he can exert control over China using energy as a lever, then he’ll do so.

Putin knows this is a long-term goal, which is why he’s not going to step down anytime soon. He’s a patriot who wants Russia to do well, but he’s stuck in a Kremlin mindset. He won’t be happy unless Russia is doing well, and it will be doing well when it drives its neighbors to their knees. So he may have a puppet in office for four years, but don’t expect any deviation from Putin’s policies. Otherwise he may get a polonium salad.

Some fun with TP

Reader TJ sends in some photoshops of TP fun:

But too many on your rear makes Sheryl Crow appear.

A man, his gun, his roll– must be Texas.
TJ says: “When toilet paper is outlawed, only outlaws will have TP!”

And of course, I had to add my own:

What do you mean I only get one square? I am the Great Cornholio!

Big Gas in Russia

In this case, railing against Big Petroleum in Russia may be worthwhile:

At their first meeting with journalists since taking over Russia’s largest independent radio news network, the managers had startling news of their own: from now on, they said, at least 50 percent of the reports about Russia must be “positive.”

In addition, opposition leaders could not be mentioned on the air and the United States was to be portrayed as an enemy, journalists employed by the network, Russian News Service, say they were told by the new managers, who are allies of the Kremlin.

How would they know what constituted positive news?

“When we talk of death, violence or poverty, for example, this is not positive,” said one editor at the station who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution. “If the stock market is up, that is positive. The weather can also be positive.”

In a darkening media landscape, radio news had been a rare bright spot. Now, the implementation of the “50 percent positive” rule at the Russian News Service leaves an increasingly small number of news outlets that are not managed by the Kremlin, directly or through the state national gas company, Gazprom, a major owner of media assets.

The three national television networks are already state controlled, though small-circulation newspapers generally remain independent.

Putin knows that economic power is far more potent in the 21st Century than military power, especially when it’s competing with China for those resources. Putin figures if he has Europe over a barrel, so speak, they’ll be able to exercise a great deal of local influence.

But when the US comes out against your pet petroleum project (Gazprom) and its attempt to consolidate local energy sources, you need to silence them. How do you do that? Control the media and paint the US as an enemy.

Anyone concerned yet?

The Energy Bully Updated

Here’s the latest news on Gazprom as Russia attempts to exert power through energy coopting.

Russian TV sanitized a protest against the Russian government, and the Megacorporation Gazprom was there to scrub it clean.

In the meantime, their government-sponsored takeover of the Sakhalin-2 platform is done, with Shell finalizing its compensation. Effectively the Russian government made Shell give up 50% of its share in the platform once it was complete. Now the original investors are going to get a profit on their investment further down the line, provided Russia doesn’t seize the platform entirely.

Some people are beginning to notice the ever-expanding influence of Gazprom. Gazprom says, “No, we’re not trying to monopolize all energy sources in Eurasia! We’re just trying to control as many of the energy companies in Eurasia as we can! Stupid British!’

Some companies are “increasing cooperation” with Gazprom. Coercion, maybe?

And why is Gazprom trying to seize as many assets as possible? Its current supplies are nearing exhaustion. In order to open more of these new plants, they need capital, and what better way to get capital than to seize multinational projects on their territory and squeeze its neighbors with crazy prices driven by monopoly?

People like BP CEO successor Tony Hayward are concerned about the Kremlin and its predilection on making all energy projects Gazprom projects.

The White House if finally “concerned” about Gazprom’s growing influence.

Finally, as the Summer season approaches, Gazprom is going to use that time on new projects– joint projects, as it were. But we see where Gazprom “projects” go– to complete control of gas assets.