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Originally Posted by Bassturbed
likwid, i'm having decaf this morning so you'll have to excuse me for being a little slow on the draw.
Putin's got his panties in a bunch over this, and in particular Georgia. In Georgia, new oil and gas pipelines are coming on line - they carry oil from the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, and "Central Asia" to Europe. These lines bypass Russia altogether. (Russkies don't like the competition).
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You forgot one country involved:Armenia.
Armenia and Azerbaijan don't like one another.The dispute over Nagorno/Karabakh has never been resolved.Their dispute is long standing and goes all the way back to the genocide of the Armenian people by Turkey and that Azerbaijan being an Islamic nation particpated in that as part of the Ottoman/Turk Empire.After the Russian revolution and its annexing of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the subsequent redistribution of land,Nagorno/Karabakh be given to the Azerbaijanies,the Armenians have the proverbial stick up their ass and rightfully so.
That pipeline goes right through the Nagorno/Karabakh region and many,many Armenians still live in that region.Muslim governments don't treat their Christian citizens very well.And since the fall of the Soviet Union the Armenians have been using the pipeline as leverage in its negotiations over the region,they even fought a small war over it after the Fall.The only reason Armenians in the region haven't severed the line is because they are way to principled to commit acts of terrorism,but after almost 20 years patience will eventually be lost and money will be offered.
As far as Russia's might is concerned it took all their might to secure a tiny country like Chechnya and that security is unstable at best.Competition...Russia has no choice,they just have to accept it as they don't have the military might to prevent it.The only way they can financially prevent competition is through massive foreign investment and the US and the oil companies are investing billions upon billions since the Fall and yet we here in the States are still paying over $3 a gallon.