Friday 25 September 2009


RUSSIA PLAYS PIPELINE POLITICS

Francesco Sisci

Asia Times, September 25, 2009

BEIJING - While the United States is engrossed in Iraq and Afghanistan - even planning a troop surge in the latter - a new and bigger strategic risk looms in a much more sensitive area - Europe and Russia. The challenge is about energy and influence in the "old continent", still the richest industrial area in the world.

But first, one needs to take a few steps back.

For three centuries, Russia has attempted to gain access to the Mediterranean Sea, and all this time the traditional European powers, France and Britain, have prevented it. The United States, becoming effectively a European power after World War II, and loaded with ideological anti-communist intentions, inherited this strategic vision and fought hard against the Soviet Union, which had taken over the Russian historical legacy.

Today, 17 years after the US "won" over the Soviet Union and after a brief honeymoon with the then newly reborn Russia, Moscow is in political limbo with Washington. Many American pundits, although not all of them, point fingers at Russia, and for several reasons. Ambiguities in Moscow's international policies, for instance, leave room for problems in places such as Iran and its nuclear program; it is not clear whether Russia backs the US-led drive to impose sanctions on Tehran.

(...) [artículo aquí]

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