Putin pulls when Obama pushes
By
M K Bhadrakumar
Assuming your opponent has a strength of six and you have a strength of four, if both exert in pushing against each other, your four is sure to lose to his six. One of the basics of applying force in judo is that if you do not push but pull as he pushes, you add your four to his six so that with a strength of ten you can easily pull him down.
‘Judo Knight’ Russian President Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, would
know that only too well and he ‘applied force’ on his US adversary President Barack Obama by his surprise decision to scrap the South Stream gas pipeline project.
The $40 billion Gazprom-funded South Stream would have brought gas from Russia under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and on to southeastern Europe. Putin
announced while on a visit to Ankara, Turkey,
“Taking into account the European Commission’s position, which is not contributing to the realization of this [South Stream] project, taking into account the fact that we have only recently received permission from the respective organizations in the Netherlands… Taking into account the fact that we still have not received Bulgaria’s permission, we think that Russia is unable to continue realization of this project in such conditions.”
On the face of it, Moscow ‘retreated’, given the European Commission’s lukewarm attitude under American pressure, not to increase further its energy dependence on Russia. But in reality, Putin outmaneuvered the West. He said,
“We will redirect the flow of our energy resources to other regions of the world, including by advanced and fast realization of liquefied natural gas projects. We will advance to the other markets and Europe will not receive these volumes, at least from Russia. We think that this is not corresponding with Europe’s economic interests and causes damage to our cooperation. But this is the choice of our European friends.”
In sum, Russia has mothballed South Stream, but it will nonetheless sell more gas to Europe via Turkey and there is nothing that the European Commission (or Washington) can do about it if the countries of southern Europe find it advantageous to tap into the energy hub that Russia is planning to create on Turkey’s border with Greece.
The surprising part is that
Turkey is teaming up with Russia despite their differences over the Syrian conflict.
Clearly, Turkey is asserting its independent foreign policies by refusing to adopt the Western sanctions against Russia. Moscow appreciates that under Prime Minister Recep Erdogan’s leadership, Turkey has opted for a nationalistic, autonomous foreign policy and emancipation from the US.
Of course, the Turkish-Russian strategic understanding has wide-ranging implications for regional politics. Washington won’t like what is happening, as this
sardonic commentary by RFERL testifies.
The scrapping of the South Stream once again underscores that Putin is determined to diversify Russia’s energy export markets. The Asian markets become a
top priority for Russian energy exports.
