Russia Sets the Pace in Energy Race (BUT...US/China liason....)

[Gloria]

From the new World Media Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflashl.com

2//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Sep 23, 2006

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI23Ag02.html



RUSSIA SETS THE PACE IN ENERGY RACE

By M K Bhadrakumar

Speaking at a conference under the rubric "Summit on Energy Security" at West Lafayette, Indiana, this month, the powerful chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, characterized Venezuela, Iran and Russia as "adversarial regimes" that were using energy supplies as "leverage" in foreign policy.

Lugar said: "We are used to thinking in terms of conventional warfare between nations, but energy is becoming a weapon of choice for those who possess it."

Senior Russian figures were quick to dismiss Lugar's admonition as "groundless Russophobia", but the US administration is already opening new battle fronts against Russia in the energy war.

Next week's meeting in Beijing on energy security involving the United States, China, Japan, India and South Korea is a dramatic manifestation of the new battle plans and war doctrines that Washington is conceptualizing. The conclave in Beijing, significantly, leaves out Western Europe.

SNIP

Evidently, Wednesday's announcement of the creation of a political framework of "economic dialogue", backed at the highest level of leadership in Beijing and Washington, cannot be a coincidence. (Nor, for that matter, can the International Monetary Fund's endorsement of the US-backed proposal on Tuesday to enhance China's "voting power" to 3.72% from 2.98%, sending an unmistakable signal to all corners of the international system that China is entering the heart of the world economy and that Washington is squarely backing this.)

MORE!!!!!


RELATED: THE HUNGRY BEAR, Part 1: Promises that can't be kept

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI23Ag01.html



This is the first article in a five-part report on Russia as an energy superpower.



… . Putin heads a resurgent Russia that is racing ever faster toward the consolidation of its key global position as respects energy security, the unique global position where it, more than any other single energy exporter, can and in fact already is setting the global agenda and taking the unquestioned leadership role in defining and drawing the circle of international energy security.

[Tellurian]

1. China is the Pale Horse! nm