ok what the fuck is happening in ukraine

Britain is going to start importing gas directly from Russia for the first time this year. Obviously the contracts were signed ages ago but fucking great timing there.

Nonetheless Tory backbenchers will be pleased that at least we're looking to increase our trade with nations outside the EU

Peak Gas to thread!!

Russia is out of the G8!

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/24/politics/obama-europe-trip/index.html

welp

countdown to clip of Putin laughting this off in 3... 2...

Oh, they already did. 'G20 is more important anyway' But how do they think this impacts their position in G20?

I'm actually interested in this question, whether or not G20 is dominated by western allies, or whether an anti-western could gather enough strong to... do something...

I actually don't really know what happens at G20-meetings.

http://cdn.brobible.com/wp-content/uploads/files/uploads/images/College/beer-olympics/drink-enema.jpg

"G8 is an informal organization that does not give out any membership cards and, by its definition, cannot remove anyone," he said during a news conference. " All the economic and financial questions are decided in G20, and G8 has the purpose of existence as the forum of dialogue between the leading Western countries and Russia.

"If our Western partners believe that this organizational format has outlived, so be it. At least, we are not attached to this format and we don't see a great misfortune if it will not gather. Maybe, for a year or two, it will be an experiment for us to see how we live without it."

lulrz

Where did Europe get their natural gas from before they imported it from Russia? I'm going under the assumption that they did not import gas from the Soviet Union.

Less gas, more oil, I suppose?

Throgh the 50s Europe mostly used coal, even for home heating, with expected consequences

Till the 60-70s, European cities were also supplied with carbon-monoxide rich coal gas (which is why sticking one's head in the oven was an effective suicide method). Europe restricted its use of natural gas from the 70s as it was seen as limited, and more valuable as a chemical feedstock than a heating/generation fuel. Quite a few, perhaps most European countries that had chemical industries also had some domestic onshore natural gas development.

That changed with nearly contemporaneous discovery of North Sea oil & gas and the massive Urengoy gas field in East Siberia in the 1960s, the 1983 construction of the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhgorod pipeline through Ukraine, and the belated action against environmental costs (acid rain, mercury) of coal generation (requiring scrubbers etc) which made coal both more expensive and more obviously dirtier.

Befor Urengoy, Ukraine used to be the epicenter of the Soviet Union's gas industry, but its gas was mostly used locally in chemical and fertilizer plants.

Western Europe didn't used to burn so much gas for making electricity, (much more coal) but since the 90s it's been the cheap, plentiful, 'clean' wonderfuel, that can be burnt in smaller, easier to build and easier to vary power plants . Gas coming out of the North Sea started the 'dash for gas' and Russia fuelled it.

Alternative to Russian gas are Qatar, Iran, fracking in Europe and Fracked US gas, probably in that order. It is interesting that with a rapprochement with Iran seemingly on the cards that the Ukraine crisis happened now. In a few years time Iran will potentially be able to export LNG to Europe and Russia will have less of a hold on European Energy supplies.

Xpost

Iran already exports all the LNG it can produce. The big LNG importers are Japan and Korea.

ah, ok. Thanks!

Yeah the problem with all this talk of the US being captain save-a-gas is that its not cheap to liquify and ship all of our natural gas to get all the way out to europe

A couple of U.S. import facilities have, since the shale gas revolution and collapse of the US market price, gone bankrupt, reorganized converted to LNG export. But throughput is only a tiny fraction of what Europe gets from Russia.

One bright side of this Ukraine kerfluffle is that Europe may take alternative energy megaprojects like Desertec more seriously, going forward.

^ U.S. LNG import facilites.

* kneels before the powers that be, begs for post editing, no matter how limited *

like that?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26729273

New Kyiv government looks to be moving against elements within Pravy Sektor that haven't accepted their authority. The Russian media is painting it as an assassination but the official government line looks fairly plausible.

give em hell, harry

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/harry-reid-gop-may-have-helped-russia-annex-crimea

Heh, "regional power", cold:

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-obama-russia-just-a-regional-power-20140325,0,5427785.story#axzz2wzsqrOky

accurate as well

Um, Syria. Moscow has intervened where the West fears to tread.

Russia has a smaller population than Bangladesh. Its still punching above its weight, globally speaking.

poor bangladesh :(

Russia is nearly twice as big as the second biggest country in the world. It's still punching below it's potential weight in the exploitation of natural resources. Part of the push behind Crimea, and in a way, part of the anxiety about the emergence of a mainstream gay culture, relates back to its diminishing population, though. There's a feeling on the right, real or imagined, that Russia is dying and needs a substantial population boost to keep heading in the right direction.

Punching below its weight in tech too.

yeah russian birth rates are pretty low, aren't they? what they really need is a good "fuck for your country" campaign

They had that and it didn't work!

"Mother Russia is watching you... fuck"

Um, Syria. Moscow has intervened where the West fears to tread.

what are you, john mccain? is iran a global power also? moscow has intervened where the west is too smart to tread. it represents no existential threat, short term or long term, to the united states. i still think there are ways to exploit its recent anxiety and bellicosity. encourage corruption in its economy and centrality of fossil fuels, foster a brain drain, depress the overall economy in a way that bolsters the oligarchy, make their source of power open to disruption, hollow them out from the inside. some combination of engagement and containment, combined w/ the base logic and focus of capitalism. bleed them.

Nah. I'm just familiar with the history of Sevastopol. 220,000 Russians died defending it in 1854-55 against the French and English, and around 20,000 Russians died defending it from the Germans in 1941–42. Crimea is as central to Russian history as Chickamauga or Chancellorsville are to American history. Plus, I think in an era with trade pacts and permanent supranational governance like the EU, multi-national states like the Austro-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Yugoslavia, Sudan or Ukraine are a bit of an atavism. Let the Crimeans decide which band of crooks they want to cozy up with, including "none of the above".

Gazprom Proposes Oil, Gas Development in Crimea (Of course they do)

encourage corruption in its economy and centrality of fossil fuels

lol tough ask

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/03/russias-revenge-why-west-will-never-understand-kremlin

That article is not really making the point the standfirst suggest btw, or at least it's not the main point.

i didn't read the article so it could be that this isn't as ridiculous as it appears (but i doubt it):

http://i58.tinypic.com/2hnni3l.png

i've read posner before, he's pretty awful.

Tymoshenko has officially entered the race to be President.

The big news is the IMF bailout, though: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/27/imf-agrees-bailout-ukraine-deal

The initial amount will be $18bn (roughly half of what was initially requested) but this might increase when governments chip in. This is contingent on austerity measures that will dramatically reduce the quality (and probably the length) of life of huge numbers of people. Domestic energy will go up by 50% overnight and it's expected that pensions will be cut in half. The figure of $80 a month has been mentioned in a few places.

I would expect most of the bailout money to go to Gazprom and to a handful of European banks that were daft enough to lend to Ukraine when Tymoshenko and Yanukovich were making the right free-market noises. I'm not sure it's nearly enough, though. The banking sector in Ukraine is a total shambles. Take the metro in Kyiv and you'll see hundreds of adverts for small banks offering interest rates of 15 / 20 percent p.a on accounts holding USD or gold - which is completely ludicrous. A run on those banks would bring down the whole system.

lol was just thinking what Ukraine needed was a sharp dose of austerity, they've had it 2 easy for 2 long good job every1

Austerity puts a smile on everyone's face. It's worked so well so far.

Pankaj Mishra is sensible as usual:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-03-31/ukraine-isn-t-worth-another-cold-war

http://i57.tinypic.com/dmcp54.png

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/04/04/us/20140405_PAINTINGS-slide-YMR8/20140405_PAINTINGS-slide-YMR8-blog427.jpg

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bf85LONIcAAI_L7.png

Bush's portrait of Putin looks like one of Vic Reeves' paitings

Lots of strange things happening in wake of Muzychko killing.

Last week Pravy Sektor's HQ was raided by police and, in a separate incident on the same day, one of their members shot and wounded three people including a local Kyiv politician.

http://www.rferl.mobi/a/kyiv-shooting-/25316373.html

Today the body of journalist and Svoboda member Vasily Sergiyenko, who was kidnapped on Friday, was found buried in woodland.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/06/ukrainian-journalist-vasily-sergiyenko-body-found

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/04/06/ukraine_pro_russian_demonstrators_storm_government_buildings_in_donetsk.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26919928

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Nothing but civilians in those pictures, that's for sure, yessirreebob.