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As the world's two biggest oil producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia
working together have the potential to dominate the globe's petroleum
markets. So far, that hasn't happened, as seemingly irreconcilable
differences – and particularly US-Saudi relations – have kept them apart.
But all the smiles and deal-making last month between Vladimir Putin and
Mohammed bin Salman, the youthful and ambitious Saudi deputy crown
prince and defense minister, has some claiming that the two energy
giants, driven together by geopolitical crisis, may bet set for a much
closer relationship.
Some experts perceive signs of an "emerging partnership" driven by
shifting global winds, in which Saudi cash helps Moscow dodge Western
sanctions, while Russian arms, engineering expertise, and diplomatic
support assist the energetic new Saudi king to wean his country from
dependency on an increasingly uncooperative US.
full:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/0703/Goodbye-Washington-hello-Moscow-Saudi-Arabia-finds-friendly-face-in-Putin
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This is a total fucking joke. The lead article on CounterPunch today is
the boilerplate pro-Putin piece that makes the case how Russia is
outmaneuvering the USA by building economic and military ties with all
sorts of powers, including the Saudis:
"Moreover, China and Russia have inked multi-decade energy agreements
this year. Moscow is also partnering with Caracas to double Venezuela’s
oil production over the next few years. Saudi Arabia signed a raft of
agreements with Russia during SPIEF."
You know what SPIEF is? Jason Hirthler, the author of the feckless
piece, explains in the opening sentences:
Last month’s St. Petersburg International Economics Forum (SPIEF) served
as a showcase to the world that Russia is anything but isolated by
American belligerence. Filled with thousands of businessmen cutting
deals with the Russian state, it provided a platform for Russia to
reshape the dominant western narrative that Russia is an international
pariah."
Well, certainly. As I pointed out this week, a NY Times article describe
anything but looming Armageddon:
The published forum program listed as attending Jim Rogers, chairman of
the Miami financial company Beeland Interests; John Wories, president of
Amsted Rail; and Jacob Frenkel, chairman of J. P. Morgan Chase
International. David Bonderman, a founder of TPG capital, a private
equity investor with shares in a grocery store chain here, also
reportedly planned to attend.
Dmitry Peskov, Mr. Putin’s press secretary, told RT (formerly Russia
Today) that “business circles are interested in Russia, as evidenced by
the guest list of the forum.”
full: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2015-June/262633.html
That's the peril of thinking in geopolitical terms rather than class
terms. Any bourgeois-led regime is always ready to turn on a dime and
cut deals with some other power that was its most hated enemy as long as
a buck can be made. The USA was putting out feelers to Iran in the fall
of 2013 when supposedly WWIII was ready to break out over Obama's "red
lines" in Syria. None of this makes any sense if you are wedded to the
idea that the unit of analysis is a nation rather than a class. Too bad
that some of these people have never bothered to read Karl Marx apparently.
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