The Pot, the Kettle, the Black Stuff

Whenever the United States accuses any country of imperialistic tendencies, one's immediate reaction (after breaking into laughter, of course) is to question what is the motivation. In the case of Russia, which is coming under increasing fire from not only the Bush Administration but its yes-men in the mass media as well, the answer is plain enough: control of natural resources, and the pipeline routes by which they will be transported east, west and south.

RFE/RL recently reported the concerns of one Keith Smith, a former ambassador and now a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Making the sensational revelation that "...Russia's status as a 'nuclear power and energy state' enables Russia to exercise political power over its neighbors," Smith fretted that "...the former Soviet states have remained dependent on Russia's oil and gas" and that "...energy companies are used as arms of Russian foreign policy."

Oh, the horror! As if states operated based on altruism alone and did not consider their strategic interests, leveraging the power and resources at their disposal as best they can. Surely the benevolent United States doesn't employ strong-arm tactics of its own? And of course, the US military buildup all around Russia's Central Asian borders, perpetual NATO expansion and the pre-selected Afghanistan campaign, have had nothing to do with the bottom line.

But Smith's perhaps best charge came when he accused Russian companies of being non-transparent: Enron? PG & E? Anyone?

The massive lobbying of American companies, media and thinktanks against Russia is fuelled by American displeasure at not being able to easily take over Russia's natural resources which, along with their remaining nuclear weaponry, remains the former superpower's last safeguards against total American hegemony. To the arrogant American imperial mindset, one which accepts no limitations on its power and world control, the concept of a foreign country attempting to safeguard its assets is incomprehensible as well as infuriating.

Meanwhile, the Russian government will delay announcing the final verdict in the Khodorkovsky trial until after the symbolic ceremonies marking the end of World War II, which will bring Dubya and many other world leaders to Moscow on May 16.

Condi Rice has threatened that "...everyone will be watching to see what the Yukos case says about the rule of law in Russia."

"Only in a non-democratic country can the president intervene so blatantly in a legal process," charges Leonid Nevzlin, the majority owner of Menatep Group, which controls Yukos. Nevzlin, who is placed well inside Forbes' list of the world's 500 richest people, fled to Israel to afford being arrested as was Khodorkovsky, and was automatically given Israeli citizenship, according to the 'right of return' policy for Jews.

In an interview last week, Nevzlin said that if Khodorkovsky is sentenced (most believe it is not a question of if, but for how long), "...I don’t want to get into politics, but I will have to." It beggars belief when the former oligarch compares himself and other multi-billionaires of his kind to "the weak" that are in danger of being "crushed" by the government. It was the same oligarchical class, of course, that enriched themselves off of manipulating the legal system in the chaotic early post-Soviet years.

Nevzlin has announced that he plans to sue the Russian government over the break-up of Yukos in the autumn, and probably in a British court. The UK is a favorite destination of Russia's robber barons. Uber-oligarch Boris Berezovsky has been sheltered there for years. Nevzlin in the above interview insinuated that the Russian government's pressure tactics against BP were due to the British refusal to extradite Berezovsky.

The Bush Administration, led by the neocons, have gushed over the righteousnes of the "weak" oligarchs' quest. They practically sanctified Khodorkovsky, for example, in full-page ads last year in leading American newspapers. But the yelping of the likes of Richard Perle is motivated sheerly by the administration's desire to to let American businessmen/politicians to their greasy little fingers on Russian energy assets.

Vladimir Putin recently lamented that the fall of the Soviet Union as "...the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." And you know what? He was absolutely right.

Ironically, while the fall of the USSR might have been a good thing for former Soviet citizens who were opened up to all the "freedoms" and liberalization of the Western world (for whatever that's worth), it wasn't a good idea for the rest of us. It upset the happy little balance of bipolar relations and spun the world into a chaotic series of uncontrollable, vertiginous localized conflicts, starting with the Yugoslav wars, reaching a violent crescendo with Osama bin Laden and his colleagues, and climaxing with who knows what to come.

Indeed, much worse than the predictable "arms race" between America and the USSR is the current climate of freelance nuclearization within small states frightened of American might, and the sudden availability of nuclear materials to terrorists which also resulted precisely from the elimination of Soviet authority.

Nevertheless, the Americans are continuing to ratchet up the pressure on Russia, by propagating phony multi-colored revolutions in neighboring states. The energy-related aspects of this are quite obvious. First of all was Georgia, with its well-known strategic relevance with the BTC pipeline, designed to minimize Russian influence. And as for the more recent victim, Ukraine, the thinktanks were not long in offering advice on how this new client state - a key transit route for Russian oil - can be reapproriated for American interests.

Another tactic comes with the US clandestinely trying to chip away at Russian control of its own territory in its soft underbelly, the North Caucasus (we will see how this plays out in the next few years). But already the fugitive Nevzlin has disclosed that US strategy might be to try and send Putin to the Hague for alleged war crimes committed in Chechnya. But with three-time war criminal Tony Blair (Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq) and two-timer Dubya (Afghanistan, Iraq) apparently safe from any similar prosecution, one has to conclude that the pot has got to be downright choking on the fumes by now. Similarly, with the Bush Administration's criticism of the failure of "democratic" elections in Russia - do they really have the right to be steamed?

Another form of pressure is of course the more direct kind: calls for opening the Russian market. The CSIS's Smith urged the EU to convince Russia to sign an "energy charter," stipulating that: "...the building of privately owned pipelines, the resulting competition for oil and gas would help to normalize the energy markets -- and the politics -- of the region."

Note that "normalize" here really means, "allow the US to control completely."

However, there are signs that the Europeans might be turning a deaf air to these entreaties. At least some powerful states are conducting business as usual with Mr. Putin. The BBC reported earlier this month that Germany has given its blessings to a deal whereby Wintershall (part of BASF) will become the first foreign company to help develop a Russian gas field, partnering with Russian giant Gazprom to develop the West Siberian Yuzhnorusskoye gas field.

The gas field, which will yield an estimated volume of about 500bn cu metres, will supply the planned 3,000km pipeline, to be finished in 2010. "...It will supply gas mainly to northern Europe, Gazprom said."

The gas deal comes at a time of intensive cooperation between Germany and the Russians. Siemens plans to build high-speed trains for Russian intercity services. As for the pipeline, it will continue under the Baltic Sea to supply Northern Europe, allowing Gazprom "...to deliver gas directly to Western Europe and sharply reduce its dependence on its traditional transit routes through Ukraine and Belarus," according to the IHT.

In opening Hanover's International Trade Fair, where the pipeline project was announced earlier this month, Chancellor Schroeder stated that "...we have now a very deep cooperation... It is known that both countries are very close when it comes to energy. But we are developing a strategic partnership, and the European Union and Russia will have one too."

Southern European states like Greece and Bulgaria, of course, are keen on winning the support of the current Russian government to get started as soon as possible with the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project.

And, far on the other side of Russia's sphere of influence, China and Japan are quite eager for the Russians to build them a pipeline too. With the world's oil consumption center of gravity tilting towards Russia's massive Asian periphery, the US finds itself in a less than opportune position - but ironically one of its own making. Bogged down in useless wars, its forces overextended in a string of Central Asian bases that are not useful for anything more than providing terrorist targets, the US is going to find achieving its "energy security" perhaps too exorbitant of a proposition. No doubt, it's much easier just to keep the blackened pot steaming.