Excellent, Russia fucked even moreQuote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
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Excellent, Russia fucked even moreQuote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
Update.
Russia seizes control of Sakhalin gas project, raises stakes with West
By Yuka Obayashi
, Emily Chow and Ron Bousso
July 1, 202211:45 PM GMT+7
- Putin signed decree to secure all rights on Thursday
- Five-page decree follows tightening Western sanctions
- Move raises risks for Western firms still in Russia
- Shell was already in talks to sell up Sakhalin stake
TOKYO/LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) -
"President Vladimir Putin has raised the stakes in an economic war with the West and its allies with a decree that seizes full control of the Sakhalin-2 gas and oil project in Russia's far east, a move that could force out Shell and Japanese investors.
The order, signed on Thursday, creates a new firm to take over all rights and obligations of Sakhalin Energy Investment Co, in which Shell (SHEL.L) and two Japanese trading companies Mitsui and Mitsubishi hold just under 50%. read more
The five-page decree, which follows Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, indicates the Kremlin will now decide whether the foreign partners can stay.
State-run Gazprom (GAZP.MM) already has a 50% plus one share stake in Sakhalin-2, which accounts for about 4% of the world's liquefied natural gas (LNG) production.
The move threatens to unsettle an already tight LNG market, although Moscow said it saw no reason for Sakhalin-2 deliveries to stop. Japan imports 10% of its LNG each year from Russia, mainly under long-term contract from Sakhalin-2. The action also raises the risks facing Western companies still in Russia.
"Russia's decree effectively expropriates foreign stakes in the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, marking a further escalation in ongoing tensions," said Lucy Cullen, a principal analyst from consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
Many Western firms have already packed up, while others have said they would quit, but Putin's move adds complications to an already complex process for those looking for the exit. Moscow has been preparing a law, expected to pass soon, to allow the state to seize assets of Western firms which decide to go.
Shell, which has already written off the value of its Russian assets, made clear months ago it intended to quit Sakhalin-2 and has been in talks with potential buyers. It said on Friday it was assessing the Russian decree.
Sources have said Shell believed there was a risk Russia would nationalise foreign-held assets, while Putin has repeatedly said Moscow would retaliate against the United States and its allies for freezing Russian assets and other sanctions.
Sakhalin-2, in which Shell has a 27.5% minus one share stake, is one of the world's largest LNG projects with output of 12 million tonnes. Its cargoes mainly head to Japan, South Korea, China, India and other Asian countries.
MAKING PREPARATIONS
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia saw no grounds for halting LNG deliveries from Sakhalin-2 and said the future of other projects or investments would be determined case by case.
"There can be no general rule here," he said.
Japan, which depends heavily on imported energy, has said it would not give up its interests in Sakhalin-2, in which Japan's Mitsui has a 12.5% stake and Mitsubishi holds 10%.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday that Russia's decision would not immediately stop LNG imports from the development, while Japan's Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda said the government did not consider the decree a requisition.
"The decree does not mean that Japan's LNG imports will become immediately impossible, but it is necessary to take all possible measures in preparation for unforeseen circumstances," Hagiuda told reporters.
Japan has 2-3 weeks of LNG stocks held by utilities and city gas suppliers and Hagiuda has asked his U.S. and Australian energy counterparts for alternative supplies, he said.
According to the decree, Gazprom keeps its stake but others must ask the Russian government for a stake in the new firm within one month. The government will decide whether to approve any request.
Gazprom, Sakhalin Energy and the Russian energy ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
A Mitsubishi spokesperson said the company was discussing with partners in Sakhalin and Japan's government about how to respond to the decree. Mitsui did not comment immediately.
Shares in Mitsui & Co (8031.T) and Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T) slid more than 5% on Friday. Shell's shares edged higher.
Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said on Wednesday the company was "making good progress" in its plan to exit from the Sakhalin Energy joint venture without giving details.
Sources had told Reuters in May that Shell was in talks with an Indian consortium to sell its stake.
Russian LNG production from projects such as Sakhalin-2 was likely to suffer as foreign expertise and parts became unavailable, said Saul Kavonic, head of Integrated Energy and Resources Research at Credit Suisse.
"This will tighten the LNG market materially this decade," he said."
https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...es-2022-07-01/
What does the decree say?
"The presidential order creates a new Russian firm to take over all the rights and obligations of Sakhalin Energy Investment.
Gazprom will retain its stake while the other partners have one month to indicate whether they want a share in the new company.
If permission is denied by the Russian government, the stakes would be divested and the proceeds from the sale would be moved to a special account.
The money could then be used to repay unspecified damages or be sent to the shareholder under the production sharing agreement, according to the decree. Those who chose to exit may not be fully compensated."
https://www.rt.com/business/558205-sakhalin-project-russia-west/
One suspects any payments due to foreign shareholders, to their "special accounts", will be in ₽.
Similarly, for future LNG orders, from "unfriendly countries".
Unless, more "friendly countries", offer more acceptable prices.
Attachment 89019
https://teakdoor.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.png
Let's just fuck Russia's investment reputation eh Puffy?
:rofl:
Another glorious win for the West! :doglol:
BP and Shell have already made their money and written it off. Now Russia can sit on the asset as its value declines.Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
Really Putin has done the world a favour.
1. Push for accelerated phase out of fossil fuel dependency, switch to renewables/nuclear. - check
2. Wake up the EU states from their NATO obligation slumber - check
3. Formerly neutral countries join NATO - check
4. NATO commitment strengthened - check
5. Ukraine moves further away from Russia - check
6. Russia loses all economic friemds aside from China and India - check
7. Russia isolates itself on a global stage - check
8. Russian people have a generation of what its like to live back in the 70's - check
9. Russia loses any idea of conventional military superiority and is left threatening the world with Nukes - check
10. Russia now has to suck off Xi's teat -Check.
I cannot be bothered with listing the rest, there are too many.
:smileylaughing:Quote:
as its value declines.
You are talking one of the Worlds largest integrated natural gas projects here.
I am and one which is going to have to start considering where its customers are, the ever generous Chinkies and Wobblies will love it :smileylaughing:Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
Oh, the majority of the World cares about it's energy and food security as much as the self styled 'international community'. Pity that the 'international community' is wholesale losing it's stranglehold on these markets though, innit? Not.
^ can you re-type that in a way that makes sense please.Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
Brand new apartments already under construction in Mariupol. 2500 will be built by September. They are free for affected residence
https://youtu.be/JCaLj6CH7MU
your mind is an affected residenceQuote:
Originally Posted by Backspin
I care about what fucking chimp taught you how to use apostrophes.Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
Sybil! :)
You claim:Quote:
Originally Posted by malmomike77
BP and Shell have already made their money and written it off.
"Written it off" as a loss?.
Who have they sold their "investment" to?
There are "unfinished discussions" I read. Any contracts agreed, signed and purchased yet?
I suspect ongoing access to gas/oil resources is more valuable than plant building contracts.
1. Push for accelerated phase out of fossil fuel dependency, switch to renewables/nuclear. - check
They have promised too many things and broken their promises.
What have they delivered - more coal-fired powers station usage.
Returning to nuclear? When will these be producing electricity for their citizens?
2. Wake up the EU states from their NATO obligation slumber - check
Possibly awakened, what have they delivered to solve their problems? When will they be equipped to protect their citizens?
(See an opinion of NATOS current problems below post:)
Turkey, NATO joined at hips but think differently
3. Formerly neutral countries join NATO - check
What do those newly accepted countries bring to enhance NATO?
4. NATO commitment strengthened - check
How will NATO countries finance their new "promises to deliver" their "strengthening" ?
5. Ukraine moves further away from Russia - check
Yet to be delivered. Who will deliver it to their new land, where will the new Ukraine be situated?
6. Russia loses all economic friemds aside from China and India - check
The "west", 16% of the world's citizens are/were friends of Russia? The other 84% of the world's citizens are moving to Russia of NaGaStan + vassals?
7. Russia isolates itself on a global stage - check
Russia has been banned from the "western" stage by the 16%. Russia and others have and are accelerating many alternatives to the 16% cliques.
8. Russian people have a generation of what its like to live back in the 70's - check
Most of which enjoy living in Russia and according to Russian polling, 80+ % back the Russian government.
9. Russia loses any idea of conventional military superiority and is left threatening the world with Nukes - check
Russia is proving you wrong and proceeding at their pace, so far.
10. Russia now has to suck off Xi's teat -Check
Russia has growing financial power, trade partners, balance of trade .... , as opposed to the 16% and is being joined by those countries who wish to accompany them to a better destination.
July 3, 2022 by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
Turkey, NATO joined at hips but think differently
"Turkey has had an uneasy history as a NATO member country. The push and pull of strategic autonomy constantly grated against a security guarantee the alliance offered and also a way of reinforcing its Western identity. The West wanted Turkey because of the Cold War.
The enigma still continues: Was Turkey’s shift from neutrality to alignment a real necessity in 1951? Did Stalin indeed cast an evil eye on Turkish lands? Would any other Kemalist leader than Ismet Inounu, an unvarnished Euro-Atlanticist whose conception of modernisation implied cooperation with the West, have succumbed to the Anglo-American entreaties?
The relations between Turkey and the Soviet Union remained relatively calm during the period of Turkey’s admission to NATO. In November 1951, Moscow actually directed a note to Turkish Government protesting the latter’s decision to participate in NATO, which asserted that “it is quite obvious that the initiation to Turkey, a country which has no connections whatever with the Atlantic, to join the Atlantic Bloc, can signify nothing but an aspiration on the part of imperialist states to utilise Turkish territory for the establishment of military bases for aggressive purposes on the frontiers of the USSR.”
The ideological aspirations in becoming an integral part — at least within the framework of a military alliance — of Western world played a decisive role in Turkey’s decision in 1951, whereas, in reality, there was no imminent or explicit Soviet threat to Turkey. On the other hand, Turkey’s geographical importance to both the West and to the Soviet Union gave her a particular value in an East-West context, which, to her credit, Ankara would successfully leverage to its advantage through subsequent decades.
Curiously, this complex inter-locking in some ways bears an uncanny resemblance to the current accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin must have alluded to it obliquely when he told the media Thursday on the sidelines of the Caspian Summit in Ashgabat:
“NATO is a relic of the Cold War and is only being used as an instrument of US foreign policy designed to keep its client states in rein. This is its only mission. We have given them that opportunity, I understand that. They are using these arguments energetically and quite effectively to rally their so-called allies.
“On the other hand, regarding Sweden and Finland, we do not have such problems with Sweden and Finland as we have, regrettably, with Ukraine. We do not have territorial issues or disputes with them. There is nothing that could inspire our concern regarding Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO. If they want it, they can do it,… let them do it. You know, there are rude jokes about stepping into unsavoury things. That is their business. Let them step into what they wish.”
While returning from NATO’s Madrid Summit, Turkish President Recep Erdogan underscored that by lifting Ankara’s reservations about Sweden’s and Finland’s membership, he advanced Turkish interests and he added the caveat that their accession is far from a done deal yet, and future developments would depend on their fulfilment of commitments under the memorandum of understanding they signed in Madrid with Turkey.
Indeed, both Sweden and Finland have bent over backward to give Turkey extensive anti-terrorism assurances that require changes in domestic legislation in return for Ankara withdrawing veto against accession talks. Erdogan insists that what matters are not their pledges but the delivery of those pledges.
It is a tough sell domestically for both Sweden and Finland, since one of the pledges is the extradition of 76 Kurds, deemed as terrorists by Turkey. This is easier said than done, as the courts in Stockholm and Helsinki may have their own definition of a “terrorist”.
The Turkish National Assembly’s ratification is a must for the Nordic countries’ admission to be formalised at NATO level. There is some speculation that the US President Joe Biden incentivised Erdogan to compromise, but, make no mistake, the latter’s warning about compliance by Sweden and Finland — as also the audible rumblings already on the left in Sweden — are reminders that the issue is still wide open.
After all, North Macedonia had been a NATO partner country since 1995 but could become a NATO member in March 2020. And Greece’s reservation was that the newly independent former Yugoslav republic wanted to be known as Macedonia whereas Athens saw the name as a threat to its own region of Macedonia — and ultimately, Greece won. In comparison, Turkey’s concerns are tangible and directly impinge on its national security.
Turkey was never a “natural ally” of NATO. How far Turkey subscribes to NATO’s latest strategic concept of Russia being a “most significant and direct threat” is debatable. Arguably, Turkey would feel more at home with the alliance’s 2010 doctrine that called Russia a “strategic partner.” This would need some explanation.
Professor Tariq Oguzlu, a leading exponent of the changing dynamics of Turkish foreign policies in recent years from a structural realist point of view, wrote an analysis last week titled Madrid Agreement and the balance policy in Turkish foreign policy, which was interestingly featured by Anadolu, Turkey’s state news agency. Oguzlu explained the rationale behind Turkey’s decision not to veto the two Nordic countries’ accession:
“Turkiye began to change its perspective on NATO a long time ago due to its strategic autonomy and multilateral foreign policy understanding… Considering the realist turnaround in Turkish foreign policy in the last three years, it is quite meaningful that Türkiye did not veto NATO enlargement..
“On the one hand, the second Cold War between the West and Russia narrows the room for maneuver in Turkish foreign policy, while on the other hand, it increases Türkiye’s strategic importance. The most important challenge for Turkish foreign policy in the coming years will be the successful continuation of Türkiye’s strategic autonomy-oriented multi-faceted foreign policy practices in an environment of deepening international polarisation.
“The balance policy pursued between the West and Russia is one of the most important strategic legacies left to the Republic of Türkiye from the Ottoman Empire. It is a strategic necessity for Türkiye, which has a medium-sized power capacity, to follow a policy of balance in order to achieve national interests. The policies adopted by Türkiye since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine until now and the stance displayed at the last NATO summit in Madrid show that this historical heritage is embraced and successfully executed.”
To put matters in historical context, in 1920, Mustafa Kemal formally approached Vladimir Lenin with a proposal for mutual recognition and a request for military assistance. The Bolsheviks not only responded positively but by throwing in their lot with the growing movement of Turkish nationalists, they helped shore up the new Turkish state’s southern borders. In the period from 1920 to 1922, Soviet Russia’s military help to Ataturk was almost 80 million lire — twice Turkey’s defence budget!
In 1921 in Moscow, the two sides concluded the “Treaty of Friendship and Brotherhood”, which resolved the territorial disputes between the Kemalists and the Bolsheviks. The north-eastern border of Turkey established then remains unchanged to this day.
However, both Moscow and Ankara understood that cooperation between Turkish nationalists and Russian communists would be short-lived. Soon afterward, Turkey deserted Moscow’s camp, banned the communist party, and, during the Nazi invasion, looked for an opportunity to invade the Soviet Caucasus if the Red Army collapsed. Nevertheless, Ataturk never forgot the help that Soviet Russia provided in his hour of need.
A historical perspective is needed to understand the US’ manipulation of Turkey — and of Sweden and Finland in the present-day context. Biden is following President Harry Truman’s footfalls. Washington has used the very same Cold-War tactic to draw Sweden and Finland into the NATO fold as it employed 70 years ago with regard to Turkey. "
https://www.indianpunchline.com/turk...k-differently/
In this case he's right, Mainland-Man.Quote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
War in Ukraine | Moscow: Snake island exit a 'Goodwill Gesture' | International News | WION - YouTube
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Putin Crony: If You Punish Russia, We Might Just Nuke All of You
The seemingly mild-mannered former Russian president the world once saw as a moderate counterbalance to Vladimir Putin says it’s “absurd” to think of punishing Russia for its war against Ukraine because the country has “major nuclear potential.” Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s powerful Security Council, doubled down on comments he made in St. Petersburg last month in an unhinged tirade against the U.S. on Telegram early Wednesday. Calling proposals to prosecute Russia for war crimes “legally void,” he said any attempts to do so “potentially threaten the existence of mankind.” “The idea of punishing a country that has major nuclear potential is absurd in itself,” he wrote, before launching into a rant against the “idiot” U.S. Citing America’s history of “senseless wars,” Medvedev appeared to argue that Russia should not be held to account for slaughtering thousands of civilians in Ukraine because the U.S. military did the same in Vietnam, Syria, and Afghanistan, among other countries. “So who is it that’s planning to arrange a show trial for us?… This will not work with Russia,” he declared, before going on to direct a citation from the Book of Revelations at the U.S.: “For the great day of his wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-...ntial?ref=home
Let's face it, if the top bloke is unhinged, it's only natural that the rest are too.Quote:
unhinged tirade
^arryism.
:smileylaughing:Quote:
Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
He's not wrong in this case, though . . . you're either with Putin or . . . you're not in many ways.Quote:
Originally Posted by russellsimpson
Top Russian Official’s Crazed Threat: Alaska Takeover Could Be Next
Russian officials have begun to issue a series of threats to the United States in an attempt to fend off a war crimes tribunal, with top officials suggesting that Russia could be interested in going after Alaska next, which the United States purchased from Russian in 1867.
Russia’s lower house speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, warned the United States ought to hesitate when seizing or freezing Russian assets abroad, and instead ought to remember that Alaska previously belonged to Russia.
“Let America always remember, there is a part of [Russian] territory: Alaska,” Volodin said, according to Hromadske. “So when they start trying to dispose of our resources abroad, before they do it, let them think: we also have something to return.”
State Duma Vice Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy proposed holding a referendum in Alaska, Volodin said, according to RBC.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, took the threats even further, and hinted at nuclear escalation.
The “idea to punish a country with the largest nuclear potential is absurd and potentially creates the threat to mankind’s existence,” he said, referring to Russia, which maintains more nuclear warheads than any other country, according to the Associated Press.
Medvedev suggested the United States hasn’t been held accountable for several bloody encounters and territorial grabs itself, and that it would do well to not look at Russia before examining its own history.
“The entire U.S. history since the times of subjugation of the native Indian population represents a series of bloody wars,” Medvedev said. “The U.S. and its useless stooges should remember the words of the Bible: Do not judge and you will not be judged... so that the great day of His wrath doesn’t come to their home one day.”
MSN
Quote:
Originally Posted by misskit
The threat is from NaGaStan's Associated Press, not Dimitry Medvedey, according to the published quotation, note, no quotation marks around, referring to Russia.Quote:
Originally Posted by misskit
*America rooting around in its handbag for the receipt*
Posted on July 7, 2022 by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
Japan’s Kishida steps on Russian oil slick
"The simmering tensions between Moscow and Japan during the past 4-month period of the war in Ukraine surged when the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev sounded the warning at a meeting on national security in Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East on Tuesday that Japan is ramping up its revanchist plans for the Kuril Islands.
To quote Patrushev, “The border situation on the territory of the Far Eastern District is being shaped under the conditions of the US and its allies increasing their military presence in the Arctic and Asia-Pacific regions and activating Japan’s revanchist aspirations with regards to the Kuril Islands by means of creating new military blocs.”
Russia has been a victim of Japanese revanchism historically. While the world is familiar with Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, most wouldn’t probably know about a similar Japanese attack 36 years earlier on February 8th, 1904 on the Russian Pacific Fleet based in Port Arthur that triggered the Russo-Japanese War. By the way, it was also an attack without a formal declaration of war. Tokyo felt emboldened by the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902, which obligated either power to provide military aid if one found itself at war. The Alliance was directed against France and Russia.
Patrushev has highlighted that the geopolitics of the Far East has phenomenally changed. Indeed, the deterioration of the Russo-Japanese relationship causes surprise, since the two countries have been coping with a cordial, “quasi-friendly” relationship through the past decade, their dispute over Kuril notwithstanding.
Japan is not even remotely connected with Ukraine’s NATO membership, but Tokyo is acting in sync with the US-Japan Treaty, emulating Washington’s sanctions against Russia. Notably, Tokyo has abandoned its reticent diplomatic idiom regarding Kuril and now calls it a Russian “occupation”.
Japan’s motivations may seem inscrutable but aren’t hard to fathom. Japan concluded that the war in Ukraine would spill over to the Far East and a conflict over Taiwan might ensue. Secondly, Japan bought into Washington’s narrative that the US had got Russia’s neck in the noose and Moscow would emerge out of the conflict in Ukraine as a weakened power, which in turn would shift the regional balance in favour of the Indo-Pacific strategy aimed at containing China.
Thirdly, Tokyo is one hundred percent committed to the idea of the NATO entering the Indo-Pacific theatre. With NATO support, Tokyo may be calculating that a weakening of Russia would enable Japan to handle the Kuril dispute from a position of strength.
Fourthly, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s trips to the US and major European capitals and his performance at the recent summit meetings of the G7 and NATO aimed to position Japan as a key player in the Indo-Pacific. The Russia-Ukraine war and Chinese “assertiveness” topped his agenda also during his 5-nation Southeast Asian tour in April-May and his appearance at the Shangri-La conference in Singapore in June.
While in Jakarta, Kishida drew a direct line between the Russian aggression and China’s decade of “assertiveness” in the East and South China seas. “We are facing many challenges, including the situations in Ukraine, the East and South China seas, and North Korea, and maintaining and strengthening the rules-based, free, and open international order has become more important,” Kishida said.
Japan’s appeal in Southeast Asia lies in mutually beneficial economic engagement, fair and transparent infrastructure financing, and its potential as a security counterweight to China’s growing influence. In Washington’s reckoning, Japan stands perhaps the best chance of nudging the reluctant Southeast Asian nations to identify with the US-led international sanctions campaign against Russia and to shift to a more active position on the Ukraine war.
On its part, Russia has belatedly begun reacting to Japan’s unfriendly stance. Moscow has bolstered its military forces in the Kuril Islands with new air and coastal defence missile batteries. With the Northern Sea Route opening up, Kuril’s strategic importance has vastly increased. The Kuril archipelago, located on the southern side of the Kamchatka peninsula, is in close proximity to Russia’s strategic bases hosting its nuclear submarine flotilla and guided-missile and ballistic missile launchers. The placement of the Russian nuclear submarine arsenal in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy requires the Kremlin to implement a program of militarisation of the Kuril Archipelago and the island of Sakhalin.
Meanwhile, Japan sees that a defining feature of Russia’s national security posture today is its securing of the “no limits” partnership with China by a set of coherent, well-thought-out and complementary strategic rationales. No doubt, the war in Ukraine has cemented the Russian-Chinese partnership. Russia’s increasingly adversarial relationship with the West and its increasingly close partnership with China complement each other. Kishida realises all this and has decided that his predecessor Shnizo Abe’s strategy to entice Russia to be a “balancer” in the Japan-China-Russia triangle is no longer tenable.
Patrushev’s sharp remarks are meant to convey to Tokyo that Moscow is taking serious note of the unfriendly shift in Japan’s stance. Moscow notices that Japan has lately entrenched its ties with NATO at a juncture when the alliance wants to limit Russia’s reach across the globe, including in the Pacific region. Moscow understands that it is under US protection and backing that Japan has become more strident on Kuril issue.
Of course, Moscow will not lower its guard, as, technically, Japan and Russia are still at war. Although Japan surrendered to the Allies in September 1945, ending World War II, Moscow and Tokyo never signed an official peace treaty.
In March, Moscow suspended the peace-treaty negotiations with Tokyo after Japan slapped economic sanctions on Russia. Kishida called Moscow’s decision “extremely unreasonable and totally unacceptable.” Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Envoy to the Far East Federal District Yury Trutnev said last month that Moscow will strip Japan of the right to fish in waters near the Kuril Islands.
Last week, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree that appears to be a step towards nationalisation of the foreign shareholdings in the giant Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project where Mitsui and Mitsubishi hold 22.5% shares. The five-page decree says it is up to the Kremlin to decide whether foreign shareholders should remain in the consortium.
Meanwhile, Tokyo’s support for the US proposal at the recent G7 summit advocating a price cap on Russian oil has put Moscow’s back up. On Tuesday, the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev sternly warned that Japan would be kicked out of Sakhalin-2 project and its supplies of Russian oil and gas cut off if it supported the US move. Medvedev forecast that if any price cap is imposed on Russian oil, the market price will touch somewhere between $300-$400 per barrel!
Sakhalin-2 is critical to Japan for meeting its energy needs. Sakhalin-2 alone meets about 8% of Japan’s gas needs and to replace it, Tokyo has to buy from spot market where competition for LNG shipments globally is currently intense and the price is around 6 times that of Russian gas. Besides, Japan’s entry will tighten the LNG market materially this decade, as Japan will have to compete with Europe.
Japan depends on imports to meet 90% of its oil and gas needs. The Japanese currency has fallen to its lowest in 20 years, resulting in its import bill shooting up by 70% in yen terms. This is indeed shaping up as one of the most serious energy crises Japan ever had, and it can severely hurt the economy. In a recent study, the Economist Intelligence Unit estimated that yen will continue to depreciate against the US dollar through 2022, which will “constrain Japan’s economic growth this year through stronger inflation, softer consumer spending and delayed business investment.”
As Russia tightens its screws on Japan, it appears Kishida may have bitten more than what he could chew on the price cap idea. Top Japanese experts have doubted the rationale behind Japan’s policy trajectory. Of course, Moscow’s dexterity to use oil and gas as geopolitical tool is not to be doubted. The Kremlin decree on Sakhalin-2 could be intended, partly at least, as a wake-up call that alienating Russia could damage Japan’s vital long-term interests. Patrushev spoke up only four days after that."
https://www.indianpunchline.com/japa...ian-oil-slick/
7 Jul, 2022 17:11 HomeRussia & FSU
Russia hasn't really started anything yet – Putin
The president cautioned Russia’s rivals against attempting to defeat it on the battlefield.
"Russia is ready to engage in peace negotiations with Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, warning that those who reject such prospects should realize that prolonging the ongoing conflict would only make such talks more difficult.
“We do not refuse to negotiate peace, but those who refuse should know that the longer they do, the more difficult it will be to negotiate,” Putin said, issuing a warning to those who might think Russia has already exhausted its capabilities amid the conflict.
We hear today that they want us to be defeated on the battlefield. Well, what can I say? Let them try. We haven’t even really started anything yet.Putin also said that the West appears to actually be willing to “fight until the last Ukrainian,” which he said is a “tragedy” for the Ukrainian people."
Continues at:
Russia hasn't really started anything yet – Putin — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union
7 Jul, 2022 16:20 HomeWorld News
Norway and Russia settle cargo dispute
The two countries have found a way to deliver goods to Russian settlements on Norway’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
"Moscow and Oslo say they have settled a dispute regarding cargo shipments to Russian mining settlements on Norway’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, according to a statement released by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.
The statement comes after a week of tension between Moscow and Oslo, after Norway halted two cargo containers destined for Russian miners living on the archipelago on June 15, citing sanctions imposed on Moscow over its conflict with Ukraine.
Russia insisted that Norway’s “unacceptable” ban on supply deliveries was depriving Russian miners of “critical” goods, including food, medical equipment, building materials, and spare parts. Moscow threatened “appropriate retaliatory measures” if the issue was not resolved.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry now claims that the containers were blocked because they were being transported on Russian vehicles, which were banned from bringing cargo over the Russian-Norwegian border.
However, it noted that there would be no issue if these containers were brought to the miners using Norwegian vehicles instead.
After having a “good dialogue” with the Russian side, the ministry stated that the two containers with supplies were already on their way to Svalbard via a Norwegian ship.
Sergey Gushkin, a Russian consul based in Svalbard, also confirmed that the two countries had found a workaround to the situation and stated that the supplies were expected to reach the Russian miner settlement of Barentsburg on Friday.
Home to less than 3,000 residents, the Svalbard archipelago is located about halfway between the Arctic circle and the North Pole and belongs to Norway. One of the largest settlements on the archipelago is Barentsburg – a mining town primarily inhabited by Russian nationals.
The town relies on a single ship that ferries goods from Tromsø to the islands every 10 days. Previously, Russian supplies were brought by truck from Murmansk and loaded onto the ferry. However, Norway has held up the supplies at the Storskog border crossing with Russia.
Svalbard has been a flashpoint of diplomatic tensions between Moscow and Oslo before, when Norway tightened entry requirements following the 2015 visit of a senior Russian official under EU sanctions on account of Ukraine.
Russia protested that such behavior violated the 1920 treaty that established Norwegian rule over the islands."
Continues at:
https://www.rt.com/news/558588-norwa...cargo-dispute/
7 Jul, 2022 09:30 HomeBusiness News
Russia introduces new payment rules for grain exports
Only “friendly” nations will receive supplies which are to be paid for in rubles .
"Russia has started selling grain abroad in domestic currency and to “friendly” countries only, the country’s largest trade and logistics operator of agricultural products reported on Wednesday.
The head of the United Grain Company Dmitry Sergeev made the announcement during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
Egypt has been the biggest client so far, and several contracts with partners in Turkey have been signed, totaling 3 billion rubles (more than $47 million), he added.
"The main thing we are striving for is to stop using intermediary international traders completely and work directly with importing countries," Sergeev stressed.
Russia is the world’s top wheat exporter and President Putin said in May that this year's grain harvest could be the biggest ever, as the country is expected to harvest 130 million tons of grain, including 87 million tons of wheat.
The global grain market has been badly affected by the disruption of exports from Ukraine and other major wheat producers, India and Kazakhstan. Both have banned wheat exports to ensure food security at home. The developments have led to a spike in grain prices and warnings of a global food crisis."
Russia introduces new payment rules for grain exports — RT Business News
FTBFY.Quote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
MacDonalds as been taken over/renamed by a Russian company.
Access to other countries by Russians:
One destination example:
Moscow - Bangkok.
Qatar Airways 1d 19h+ Connecting from THB 32,223
Emirates 15h 50m+ Connecting from THB 37,965
Gulf Air 1d 13h+ Connecting from THB 41,071
Etihad 16h 10m+ Connecting from THB 56,947
Another:
Flights to United Kingdom
London
1 stop · 9h 10m+
from THB 57,666
Manchester
1 stop · 9h 55m+
from THB 91,665
Edinburgh
1 stop · 11h 30m+
from THB 116,236
Birmingham
1 stop · 10h 5m+
from THB 79,321
Glasgow
1 stop · 14h 55m+
from THB 131,480
Subject to citizenship, visa, vaccinations .... as usual.
Food, gas, electric .... as normal.
Choices of cheaper butter, shrinkflation, Russia only?:rolleyes:
14 Jul, 2022 09:12
HomeWorld News
Three more countries set to join BRICS - official
The kingdom, along with Turkey and Egypt, may apply next year, the BRICS Forum president told Russian media
"Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt plan to join BRICS, and their potential membership bids could be discussed and answered at next year’s summit in South Africa, Purnima Anand, the president of the organization, told Russian media on Thursday.“All these countries have shown their interest in joining [BRICS] and are preparing to apply for membership. I believe this is a good step, because expansion is always looked upon favorably; it will definitely bolster BRICS’ global influence,” she told Russian newspaper Izvestia.
The BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) account for over 40% of the global population and nearly a quarter of the world’s GDP. The bloc’s stated purposes include promoting peace, security, development, and cooperation globally, and contributing to the development of humanity.
Anand said the issue of expansion was raised during this year’s BRICS summit, which took place in late June in Beijing.
The BRICS Forum president said she hopes the accession of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt will not take much time, given that they “are already engaged in the process,” though doubts that all three will join the alliance at the same time.
“I hope that these countries will join the BRICS quite shortly, as all the representatives of core members are interested in expansion. So it will come very soon,” Anand added.
The news of the three nations’ plans to join BRICS comes after Iran and Argentina officially applied for membership in late June, with Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh touting the bloc as a “very creative mechanism with broad aspects.”
Three more countries set to join BRICS - official — RT World News
About 45% of the world's population.
I'm not buying that line. Purely and simply it's an organization attempting to keep American ambitions in the Indo-Pacific in check.Quote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
Keep an eye on the clever Chinese. They play the long game and they're damn good at it.:popcorn:.
As to the title of the thread....
Putin obviously grows as a threat as the time goes on. There is legitimate concern with his mental health. Let's hope this damned war ends, the sooner the better.
Now Nato is free to wage direct war on Russia without breaking the free market democracy talismanic factoid that no 2 MacDonalds hosting nations have ever gone to war with each otherQuote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
If you reflect on the listed above current members and the potential new aspirants to join BRICS, you may notice that already there are European, Asian, African and South American members.Quote:
Originally Posted by russellsimpson
The new one, Iran is in the Middle East, the others are Middle Eastern, Saudi Arabia, European, Turkey and African, Egypt.
Far more substntil than your current "indo pacific" area.
One comentator on current topics including Russia's BRICS, SMO, Taiwan ....
Russia and China Haven’t Even Started to Ratchet Up the Pain Dial
Pepe Escobar
July 13, 2022
The Suicide Spectacular Summer Show, currently on screen across Europe, proceeds in full regalia.
"The Suicide Spectacular Summer Show, currently on screen across Europe, proceeds in full regalia, much to the astonishment of virtually the whole Global South: a trashy, woke Gotterdammerung remake, with Wagnerian grandeur replaced by twerking.
Decadent Roman Emperors at least exhibited some degree of pathos. Here we’re just faced by a toxic mix of hubris, abhorring mediocrity, delusion, crude ideological sheep-think and outright irrationality wallowing in white man’s burden racist/supremacist slush – all symptoms of a profound sickness of the soul.
To call it the Biden-Leyen-Blinken West or so would be too reductionist: after all these are puny politico/functionaries merely parroting orders. This is a historical process: physical, psychic and moral cognitive degeneration embedded in NATOstan’s manifest desperation in trying to contain Eurasia, allowing occasional tragicomic sketches such as a NATO summit proclaiming Woke War against virtually the whole non-West.
So when President Putin addresses the collective West in front of Duma leaders and heads of political parties, it does feel like a comet striking an inert planet. It’s not even a case of “lost in translation”. “They” simply aren’t equipped to get it.
The “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” part was at least formulated to be understood even by simpletons:
“Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield, well, what can I say, let them try. We have heard many times that the West wants to fight us to the last Ukrainian – this is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people. But it looks like it’s all coming to this. But everyone should know that, by and large, we haven’t really started anything yet.”
Fact. On Operation Z, Russia is using a fraction of its military potential, resources and state of the art weapons.
Then we come to the most probable path ahead in the war theater:
“We do not refuse peace negotiations, but those who refuse should know that the longer it drags, the more difficult it will be for them to negotiate with us.”
As in the pain dial will be ratcheted up, slowly but surely, on all fronts.
Yet the meat of the matter had been delivered earlier in the speech: “ratcheting up the pain dial” applies in fact to dismantling the whole “rules-based international order” edifice. The geopolitical world has changed. Forever.
Here’s the arguably key passage:
“They should have understood that they have already lost from the very beginning of our special military operation, because its beginning means the beginning of a radical breakdown of the World Order in the American way. This is the beginning of the transition from liberal-globalist American egocentrism to a truly multipolar world – a world based not on selfish rules invented by someone for themselves, behind which there is nothing but the desire for hegemony, not on hypocritical double-standards, but on international law, on the true sovereignty of peoples and civilizations, on their will to live their historical destiny, their values and traditions and build cooperation on the basis of democracy, justice and equality. And we must understand that this process can no longer be stopped.”
Meet the trifectaA case can be made that Putin and Russia’s Security Council are implementing a tactical trifecta that has reduced the collective West to an amorphous bunch of bio headless chickens.
The trifecta mixes the promise of negotiations – but only when considering Russia’s steady advances on the ground in Novorossiya; the fact that Russia’s global “isolation” has been proved in practice to be nonsense; and tweaking the most visible pain dial of them all: Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
The main reason for the graphic, thundering failure of the G20 Foreign Ministers summit in Bali is that the G7 – or NATOstan plus American colony Japan – could not force the BRICS plus major Global South players to isolate, sanction and/or demonize Russia.
On the contrary: multiple interpolations outside of the G20 spell out even more Eurasia-wide integration. Here are a few examples.
The first transit of Russian products to India via the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) is now in effect, crisscrossing Eurasia from Mumbai to the Baltic via Iranian ports (Chabahar or Bandar Abbas), the Caspian Sea, and Southern and Central Russia. Crucially, the route is shorter and cheaper than going through the Suez Canal.
In parallel, the head of the Iranian Central Bank, Ali Salehabadi, confirmed that a memorandum of interbank cooperation was signed between Tehran and Moscow.
That means a viable alternative to SWIFT, and a direct consequence of Iran’s application to become a full BRICS member, announced at the recent summit in Beijing. The BRICS, since 2014, when the New Development Bank (NDB) was founded, have been busy building their own financial infrastructure, including the near future creation of a single reserve currency. As part of the process, the harmonization of Russian and Iranian banking systems is inevitable.
Iran is also about to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at the upcoming summit in Samarkand in September.
In parallel, Russia and Kazakhstan are solidifying their strategic partnership: Kazakhstan is a key member of BRI, EAEU and SCO.
India gets even closer to Russia across the whole spectrum of trade – including energy.
And next Tuesday, Tehran will be the stage for a crucial face-to-face meeting between Putin and Erdogan.
Isolation? Really?
On the energy front, it’s only summer, but demented paranoia is already raging across multiple EU latitudes, especially Germany. Comic relief is provided by the fact that Gazprom can always point out to Berlin that eventual supplying problems on Nord Stream 1 – after the cliffhanger return of that notorious repaired turbine from Canada – can always be solved by implementing Nord Stream 2.
As the whole European Suicide Spectacular Summer Show is nothing but a tawdry self-inflicted torture ordered by His Master’s Voice, the only serious question is which pain dial level will force Berlin to actually sit down and negotiate on behalf of legitimate German industrial and social interests.
Rough and tumble will be the norm. Foreign Minister Lavrov summed it all up when commenting on the Declining Collective West Ministers striking poses like infantile brats in Bali to avoid being seen with him: that was up to “their understanding of the protocols and politeness.”
That’s diplo-talk for “bunch of jerks”. Or worse: cultural barbarians, as they were even unable to respect the hyper-polite Indonesian hosts, who abhor confrontation.
Lavrov preferred to extol the “joint strategic and constructive” Russian-Chinese work when faced with a very aggressive West. And that brings us to the prime masterpiece of shadowplay in Bali – complete with several layers of geopolitical fog.
Chinese media, always flirting with the opaque, tried to put its bravest face ever depicting the over 5-hour meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Secretary Blinken as “constructive”.
What’s fascinating here is that the Chinese ended up letting something crucial out of the bag to slip into the final draft of their report – obviously approved by the powers that be.
Lu Xiang of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences went through previous readouts – especially of “Yoda” Yang Jiechi routinely turning Jake Sullivan into roasted duck – and stressed that this time Wang’s “warnings” to the Americans were “the sternest one in wording”.
That’s diplo-code for “You Better Watch Out”: Wang telling Little Blinkie, “just look at what the Russians did when they lost their patience with your antics.”
The expression ”dead end” was recurrent during the Wang-Blinken meeting. So in the end the Global Times had to tell it like it really is: “The two sides are close to a showdown.”
“Showdown” is what End of Days fanatic and Tony Soprano wannabe Mike Pompeo is fervently preaching from his hate pulpit, while the combo behind the senile “leader of the free world” who literally reads teleprompters actively work for the crashing of the EU – in more ways than one.
The combo in power in Washington actually “supports” the unification of Britain, Poland, Ukraine and The Three Baltic Midgets as a separate alliance from NATO/EU – aiming at “strengthening the defense potential.” That’s the official position of U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julian Smith.
So the real imperial aim is to split the already shattering EU into mini-union pieces, all of them quite fragile and evidently more “manageable”, as Brussels Eurocrats, blinded by boundless mediocrity, obviously can’t see it coming.
What the Global South is buying
Putin always makes it very clear that the decision to launch Operation Z – as a sort of pre-emptive “combined arms and police operation”, as defined by Andrei Martyanov – was carefully calculated, considering an array of material and socio-psychological vectors.
Anglo-American strategy, for its part, lasers on a single obsession: damn any possible reframing of the current “rules-based international order”. No holds are barred to ensure the perpetuity of this order. This is in fact Totalen Krieg – featuring several hybrid layers, and quite worrying, with only a few seconds to midnight.
And there’s the rub. Desolation Row is fast becoming Desperation Row, as the whole Russophobic matrix is shown to be naked, devoid of any extra ideological – and even financial – firepower to “win”, apart from shipping a collection of HIMARS to a black hole.
Geopolitically and geoeconomically, Russia and China are in the process of eating NATOstan alive – in more ways than one. Here, for instance, is a synthetic road map of how Beijing will address the next stage of high-quality development via capital-driven industrial upgrading, focused on optimization of supply chains, import substitution of hard technologies, and “invisible champions” of industry.
If the collective West is blinded by Russophobia, the governing success of the Chinese Communist Party – which in a matter of a few decades improved the lives of more people than anyone, anytime in History – drives it completely nuts.
All along the Russia-China watchtower, it’s been not such a long time coming. BRI was launched by Xi Jinping in 2013. After Maidan in 2014, Putin launched the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) in 2015. Crucially, in May 2015, a Russia-China joint statement sealed the cooperation between BRI and EAEU, with a significant role assigned to the SCO.
Closer integration advanced via the St. Petersburg forum in 2016 and the BRI forum in 2017. The overall target: to create a new order in Asia, and across Eurasia, according to international law while maintaining the individual development strategies of each concerned country and respecting their national sovereignty.
That, in essence, is what most of the Global South is buying. It’s as if there’s a cross-border instinctual understanding that Russia-China, against serious odds and facing serious challenges, proceeding by trial and error, are at the vanguard of the Shock of the New, while the collective West, naked, dazed and confused, their masses completely zombified, is sucked into the maelstrom of psychological, moral and material disintegration.
No question the pain deal will be ratcheted up, in more ways than one."
https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...-up-pain-dial/
This thread could be a contender for longest thread on teh DOOR if a word-count metric were available, rather than just post-count
Is there a TD defined word count limit on individual posts?Quote:
Originally Posted by Looper
Or is it some TD members believe this thread's subject is important enough to rebut errors, as per this:
and or even post facts for general knowledge?Quote:
Originally Posted by russellsimpson
Yet remarkably, if it comes from any of the four wanketeers, it's inevitably vacuous, fictional bullshit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Looper
Not on your own words . . . your tedious cnp bullshit definitely. Do you think posting something you believe people will read is a good thing? Excellent . . . try it.Quote:
Originally Posted by OhOh
An amusing tale of how Vlad's "stealth jets" are a laughing stock in the industry.
Su-75: Russia's Cheap 'F-35' Stealth Jet Already Seems RIP - 19FortyFive