telegraph.co.uk — Fears are mounting that Russia may restrict oil deliveries to Western Europe over coming days, in response to the threat of EU sanctions and Nato naval actions in the Black Sea. Any such move would be a dramatic escalation of the Georgia crisis and play havoc with the oil markets.
Aug 29, 2008 View in Crawl 4
hanglyAug 29, 2008
As controller of the second largest oil reserves, Russia really has the upper hand on this one. The US controls (most of) the oil in the Middle East, but that oil has to supply much of the industrialized world. Europe, Japan and China still need Iranian and Central Asian oil. Russia is energy-independent, so we can't exactly retaliate in kind.
Closed AccountAug 29, 2008
I found a rendition of this joke on the internet. My dad told me it when I was a very young lad. His version was much better.A man went to Africa to do some game hunting.While there, he hired a young native to accompany him as his guide.Soon, a large flock of birds flew overhead and the hunter took aim.The guide grabbed his arm and said "Oh,no! These are foo birds and to shoot one means terrible things will happen to you! The man figured that was only a superstion of the natives and shot one down. Then the rest of the flock returned and pooped all over him.He hollared at the boy, "I must have some water right away to wash this mess off." The boy said "Oh no! To wash the crap of the foo bird off means sudden death immediately! Again the hunter ignored his advice, found water and got cleaned off.Sure enough he dropped dead then and there.The moral of this story is "If the foo s**ts, wear it."
hanglyAug 29, 2008
I was factoring in Iran also. Maybe that's premature, but that's the direction I see this going.
vapidAug 29, 2008
shut up you f**kin liar
effyooAug 30, 2008
If they want to hurt the west they'll need to stop all sales of oil and reduce the global supply. It will hurt everyone else too, especially developing countries that rely on trade like China, but it would be the only way they could actually do something.If they stop selling to the west they'll sell it to other people who will just buy from russia instead of buying from somewhere else. The west will buy the supply from the 'somewhere else' that the 'other people' stopped buying.
yodajonesAug 30, 2008
Hard currency? I hope you are not talking about dollars. There is nothing HARD about dollars dude.Besides, what do the Russians need hard currency for? What do you think they are going to buy?