ΣΤΟ "ΒΗΜΑ" Η ΤΑΥΤΟΤΗΤΑ ΤΩΝ ΕΜΠΡΗΣΤΩΝ

ΣΤΟ "ΒΗΜΑ" Η ΤΑΥΤΟΤΗΤΑ ΤΩΝ ΕΜΠΡΗΣΤΩΝ

Όταν γκάγκστερς καίνε νύχτα κάποιο «μαγαζί», τρομοκρατώντας και δείχνοντας στον μαγαζάτορα ποιος είναι το πραγματικό αφεντικό, αφήνουν πάντα στον τόπο του εγκλήματος ευδιάκριτο ίχνος της ταυτότητας τους. Διαφορετικά η ενέργεια τους δεν θα είχε ούτε νόημα ούτε αποτέλεσμα.

Οι γκάγκστερς που μετέβαλαν σε κρανίου τόπο τη χώρα μας δεν άφησαν μόνο ίχνος. Φανέρωσαν, στις 29 του Ιούνη, φαρδιά πλατιά την ταυτότητα τους σε πρωτοσέλιδο της εφημερίδας ΤΟ ΒΗΜΑ!

Κι όμως οι πολιτικοί ταγοί μας, κυβέρνηση, κοινοβουλευτική και εξωκοινοβουλευτική αντιπολίτευση, κάνουν τους ανήξερους.

Κάποια κανάλια αναφέρθηκαν «παρεμπιπτόντως» και εν συντομία στο δημοσίευμα χωρίς να δώσουν συνέχεια. Το βδομαδιάτικο ΠΑΡΟΝ στις 3 Σεπτέμβρη ανέβασε το δημοσίευμα του Βήματος στην πρώτη σελίδα. Κι αυτή τη φορά όμως το θέμα πέρασε στο «ντούκου».

Συγκεκριμένα ο πρωτοσέλιδος τίτλος του «Βήματος» αναφέρει:

[Αμερικάνικη δυσφορία για τον νέο αγωγό αερίου

Αξιωματούχους των ΗΠΑ ζητεί από την ελληνική κυβέρνηση να «απεξαρτηθεί (η Ελλάδα) από το ρωσικό φυσικό αέριο»]

Πρόκειται για τον βοηθό υφυπουργό Εξωτερικών Ματ Μπράιζα αρμόδιο για τις ευρωπαϊκές και ευρασιατικές υποθέσεις ο οποίος, ούτε λίγο ούτε πολύ, ζήτησε με δήλωση του την ακύρωση της συμφωνίας για τον ρωσικό αγωγό και απαίτησε την προμήθεια αζέρικου φυσικού αερίου με αγωγό που δεν θα περάσει από τη Βουλγαρία αλλά απ’ την Τουρκία προς Ελλάδα και Ιταλία.

Στο κέντρο της σελίδας φωτογραφική απεικόνιση βιβλικής καταστροφής: Τεράστιο σύννεφο καπνού απ’ την φλεγόμενη Πάρνηθα, «κάθεται» πάνω στις πολυκατοικίες της Αθήνας ενώ τ’ αυτοκίνητα κυκλοφορούν μέρα μεσημέρι με αναμμένους τους προβολείς. Δίπλα ο τίτλος: «Η Αθήνα σε κλοιό φωτιάς και καπνού - Μεγάλα μέτωπα κατακαίουν Πήλιο και Αγιά…»

Και η κατακλείδα όλων αυτών, σε πλαίσιο και με μπολντ χαρακτήρες το εξής εκπληκτικό μήνυμα:


[ΠΡΟΣΟΧΗ!

Το παιχνίδι είναι μεγάλο και η χώρα μας μικρή. Η βιασύνη του Πούτιν και οι αντιδράσεις των Αμερικάνων δείχνουν ότι η Ελλάδα έχει εμπλακεί σε μια σκληρή αναμέτρηση. Αυτονόητο είναι ότι χρειάζονται προσεκτικές αποφάσεις και ευέλικτες κινήσεις. Η Ελλάδα πρέπει να βγει κερδισμένη και να μη γίνει στόχος εκδικητικής μανίας, διότι όλοι γνωρίζουμε πλέον πως αντιδρούν οι μεγάλες δυνάμεις.

ΤΟ ΒΗΜΑ]


Επρόκειτο για προειδοποίηση ή ήταν απειλή; Το σίγουρο είναι πως όταν υπογράφεται απ’ το δίδυμο Λαμπράκης - Ψυχάρης είναι σα να υπογράφει το ίδιο το Στέιτ Ντιπάρτμεντ.


http://www.jucee.org/China/Gas-Pipeline-Politics-May-Ignite-Global-Resource-Wars.html

Gas Pipeline Politics May Ignite Global Resource Wars


With Russia already using its natural gas to unpleasant woman-slap former Soviet republics and threaten European Union "customers," the U.S. faces face-downs as its un-democratic rivals seek to control gas and oil supplies, and, doubtless later, water and other necessities. Look for China and India to make international deals that deal us out! And, yes, we'll have to help rearm Japan before we're checkmated at crucial supply routes.

Meanwhile, as Bush prepares to kiss Putin's butt and make nice with Kim Jong Il, the USA now faces the true cost of invading Iraq, letting Afghanistan crumble, and allowing Iran and Syria to help trap us in the Middle East.

=====

"Politics Of the Pipelines"

"U.S. Seeks Ways to Route Natural Gas Around Russia"

By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 11, 2006; D01

For a low-profile State Department official, Matthew J. Bryza gets around. A member of the bureau of European and Eurasian affairs, he frequents places such as Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. This year, he's also popped in on people in Brussels, Rome and Berlin. One key item on his agenda: persuading governments and energy companies to build natural gas pipelines that skirt Russia.

New routes that avoid Russia would "make the market function better" and enhance energy security, a senior State Department official said. "We're sharing information and a vision." Russia doesn't share that vision. The Kremlin has been conducting its own campaign to lock producing countries in Central Asia and consumer countries in Europe more tightly into Russia's pipeline network.

The politics of gas pipelines has added friction to the preparations for the Saturday to Monday meeting of the Group of Eight industrial nations, to be hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. A year ago, Putin said this meeting's "key topic" would be energy. "The country which is definitely a leader in the world market is ordained by God to deal with this issue," he said after last July's G-8 summit.
news reports
Hello to all, The news report on papers or TV which reported small problem here and there but afterall these are just mother haa a...

Despite Putin's boast, the summit's focus on energy will only highlight why Russia remains a troublesome issue for the West. The oil and gas industry reflects Russia's autocratic nature, diplomats and energy experts say; it is controlled by the state, opaque to Western investors and difficult for foreign firms to enter.

Although the United States and Russia may strike a deal on reprocessing waste from nuclear power plants, the pipeline politics has highlighted the mutual mistrust between Russia and the West, especially after Russia briefly cut gas supplies to its neighbor Ukraine in January. While Russia said it wanted to end subsidies on natural gas sold to Ukraine since Soviet days, squeezing supplies in winter shortly after the ouster of a pro-Russian president smacked of a crbutt political maneuver.

"No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail," Vice President Cheney said in a May 4 speech in Vilnius, Lithuania, angering Russians. Because much of the Russian gas bound for Europe flowed through the Ukraine route, people in European capitals took notice. "This sharpened the atbreastudes of Europeans even more than the Americans," said a senior European diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because talks are ongoing. "This was very much an important thing for us."

Europe relies on Russia for about a third of its natural gas supplies. Those supplies arrive via two major pipeline routes constructed in the 1980s over the objections of the Reagan administration. Today the United States realizes that Russian gas will remain vital to Europe, but it is pushing nations to diversify supplies so that Russia cannot exploit Europe's energy dependence for political purposes.

"What does it mean to achieve energy security when you're reliant on one country?" Karen Harbert, buttistant secretary for policy and international affairs at the Energy Department, asked at a meeting at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

At the same time, however, Russia sells 80 percent of its natural gas to Europe and is worried about European plans to increase gas purchases from Algeria and Libya, as well as about liquefied natural gas from Qatar, which plans to triple its exports.
Will Japan Go Nuclear
Kim Jong-Il has done it before and now he's at it again. He's played his strongest card--the threat of war by nuclear weapons--in his continuing program to extract concessions...

Bryza and more senior U.S. officials have been promoting pipeline routes that would bring gas from fields in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan near the Caspian Sea through Turkey to Europe. One such pipeline, from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey, opens Oct. 1. U.S. officials have been saying that reserves in Azerbaijan alone could justify bigger pipelines even if territorial disputes over the Caspian Sea are not resolved. (Missing from the U.S. vision: supplies from Iran, whose natural gas reserves are second to only Russia's.)

Former Soviet Bloc countries are enthusiastic, especially since Russia has boosted prices on gas sold to Moldova and Belarus. Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili said during a recent visit here that he supports a pipeline that would bring gas from the Caspian Sea basin through Azerbaijan and Georgia, then under the Black Sea (to avoid Russia) to Romania and then north to Poland. Building that line would take at least five years.

Meanwhile, Moscow isn't idle. It has dangled higher prices in front of producers including Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. It has held talks with other gas-exporting nations, such as Algeria and Iran, about coordinating policies so they don't undercut one another. And it has deployed former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to promote a new direct pipeline link between Russia and Germany. (Schroeder now works for the Swiss-based pipeline venture controlled by Russia's state-controlled OAO Gazprom.)

Poles fear that a Russian-German pipeline under the Baltic Sea would enable Russia to pressure Poland, which would no longer be a transit route for Russian gas destined for Germany. In late April, Poland's defense minister, Radek Sikorski, said that the deal to build the $5 billion, 750-mile pipeline was in "the Molotov-Ribbentrop tradition," a reference to the pact between Hitler's and Stalin's foreign ministers that led to the parbreastion of Poland in World War II.

"We want . . . no monopolies or blackmails, price-fixing or the use of energy as a tool of politics, or geopolitics," Sikorski said in an interview with the BBC.

Not everyone buys the U.S. vision. "It's very simple to make lines on a map," said a European energy company executive who had met with Bryza and spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his U.S. relationships. "It costs $2 billion, if not more, to build a pipeline from Turkey." Many European companies have interests in Russian gas projects. German energy giant E.On Ruhrgas AG and chemical giant BASF AG own minority stakes in Gazprom's Northern European Gas Pipeline under the Baltic. The Italian state oil company, Eni SpA, is Gazprom's partner in the Blue Stream pipeline that carries gas from Russia to Turkey under the Black Sea.

But Russia is still worried. Eni is also building a pipeline from Libya to Italy. And Qatar says a third of its exports will go to Europe.

As part of its strategy to hang onto European markets and expand its reach, Russia wants cash-rich Gazprom to invest in European gas distribution systems in Britain, Germany and Italy. Russian officials say that if Western firms want to invest in exploration and production in Russia,

Gazprom should have similar access to Western investment opportunities.

Europe is reluctant, though. In a subtle yet clear message, two European Union ministers wrote in May to the Russian government, saying the compebreastion "rules applied to Gazprom will be no different to those applied to . . . other companies." They noted that "the fact that Gazprom is the exclusive exporter of gas from Russia to the EU, when other Russian companies and foreign joint ventures with gas reserves would otherwise be in a position to supply the EU market, will be a significant fact that will necessarily be taken into account."

"Reciprocity is something we're looking for," said the senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are ongoing. He urged Russia to let foreign oil or gas firms explore and use Russia's pipelines.

Yet foreign investors still find Russia challenging territory. Russia has announced new limits on foreign ownership of key energy resources. TNK-BP, a joint venture involving BP PLC, has had trouble getting access to export pipelines; delays have been seen as an effort to force it to sell a stake in its fields. Last week, Russia's parliament reaffirmed Gazprom's monopoly over the nation's gas pipelines. And 10 months after releasing a short list of five foreign firms, including U.S.-based Chevron Inc. and Conoco Phillips, Russia has still not said which ones will share with Gazprom the rights to explore the big Shtokman natural gas field.

Russia has avoided a new conflict over Ukraine on the eve of the G-8 summit. In January, Russia and Ukraine reached a temporary accord, which expired July 1. A decision on new terms has been delayed until Ukraine forms a new government. That will be, conveniently for Russia, after the G-8 meeting.

Meanwhile, Moscow has been wooing foreign gas producers. Shortly after Cheney visited Kazakhstan and won a pledge from that country's president to export Kazakh gas through a trans-Caspian pipeline, Russian officials visited Kazakhstan and reportedly reached a deal for Gazprom to transport Kazakh gas.

Turkmenistan is also negotiating with Russia, seeking to raise the price it is paid by two-thirds. It may accept less, but there is still no pipeline across the Caspian, and Turkmen relations with Azerbaijan aren't great. "Turkmenistan doesn't have much of an option," said Hossein Ebneyousef, president of International Petroleum Enterprises, a consulting firm.
Bush Using Diplomacy! Must Be Impeached
We need plants, not diplomacy! We need threats not consensus! We need saber-rattling, not U.N. resolutions...

But if Russian concerns about compebreastion from other nations helped raise the price paid to Turkmenistan, that is a sign that the U.S. strategy is working, U.S. officials say. And if European nations buy more supplies from Libya, Algeria and Qatar, that's as helpful as buying more from Azerbaijan. "That's the name of the game: Get more coming in from every possible direction -- except Iran, of course," the State Department official said.

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http://www.polit.ru/event/2007/07/27/tgi.html

Not Blue Stream

The administration of USA President George W. Bush has congratulated leaders of Italy, Turkey and Greece with making of contract about new alternative gas pipeline from the Caspian region to Europe. “The United States congratulates the Prime Ministers of Turkey, Greece, and Italy on their signing of the Intergovernmental Agreement for the Turkey-Greece-Italy Pipeline (TGI) today in Rome,” - says the official announcement of the Spokesman of the U.S. Department of State, Sean McCormack,
There is nothing astonishing in this statement, since the USA are already for a long time quite a significant player in the Caspian region, so an agreement aimed at export of the gas to Europe can be only avail for the USA.
Undesirable Stream
But the Caspian gas is becoming increasingly more interesting for the USA. This March Azerbaijan Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mammadyarov and the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Energy Security Cooperation in the Caspian Region. In the opinion of the USA Russia is de facto the major supplierof gas in Europe that is a violation of the competitive principle. Turkey receives 65 percent of gas from Russia, as well as Europe, which gets fro Russia 40 percent of gas.
That’s why the USA has been hatching a geopolitical idea of the South Stream long since. The so-called South Stream, i.e. a way of gas transit from the Caspian region through Turkey to Europe and, can totally change the strategic map of Eurasia, since it offers Europe a better hope on large supplies of the natural gas that will allow to ensure diversification and retreat from the even more deepening dependence on one supplier or one net, reckons Deputy Secretary of State on Europe and Eurasia.
U.S. Department of State Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza recently argued that “What this agreement is about is building on Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum to help Azerbaijan attract investment, to expand its gas production, move that gas through that BTE pipeline, and then take that gas and move it onward to Greece and Italy through a pipeline that is almost completed called the Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline, and that’s mentioned in the MOU.”
“Also, later, as gas production in Azerbaijan increases, we hope the gas will also move in the so-called Nabucco pipeline -– named after the opera, Nabucco.”
Nabucco is to pass through Turkey-Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria. The project costs 5 billion euros and is to over in 2011.
Imbalance of plans
The Azerbaijani state-run oil company (SOCAR) has already announced about its intension to transport gas in Greece in this year. The president of the company Rovnag Abdullayev argued that according to the agreement between Turkey and Greece, Greece will receive 800 mcm of gas at the cost of $149 per 1 thousand cubic meters; SOCAR intends to export a half of all the amount.
The problem is that Azerbaijan gas will not be enough. “The gas pipeline Baku-Erzurum, and, correspondingly, one through Turkey-Greece-Italy are intended nor for Azerbaijani gas but for one of Central Asia. Azerbaijan can fill it up only for 30-40%. The country certainly has such potential but it should be developed, since the country has always focused attention on oil,” supposes professor for political sciences, head of Eurasian Media Group Vartan Toganyan.
And here a game has just begun. Until now Turkmenistan has not declared for its participation in the project, but in theory the gas pipeline Baku-Erzurum is intended for Turkmenian gas. “Turkmenistan has sufficient reserves of gas to meet all export requirements; so Nabucco opens new possibilities for it. Certainly, new investments are required and Russian companies can participate in it, but technically there are no difficulties. It is rather a matter of policy; so, the new president of Turkmenistan has quite a deliberate policy. Thus it will certainly allow Turkmenistan to feel more free during negotiations for the transit prices with Russia, but it’s a business. Russia behaves in the same way with Ukraine and Belarus,” argues an analyst of the Panorama research center Anvar Amirov.
In theory Iran can also export its gas via this pipeline, but here a Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy interferes. The USA position stays still unchangeable, it won’t cancel sanctions imposed on Iran. “In the future Iran will certainly try joining such projects and entering the gas market of the European Union,” reckons Toganyan. But at the moment Iran has problems with gas supplies even in the North of the country, since its gas fields are situated in the south.
European gas importers try hard to use this resource to diversify gas supplies as much as possible. At the moment natural gas is received mostly from Russia or en route from Central Asia. Analysts estimate, in 2030 year volume of oil and gas import in the EU countries will increase up to 60 percent. All this gas will be supplied from countries not being member of the Union. Thus a problem of diversification of gas resources is extremely important for Europe, so it is very interested in Azerbaijani gas. Thomas Geisel, Senior Vice-President of E.ON Ruhrgas AG recently claimed that the company planned to receive 20-25 bcm of Azerbaijani gas per year.
Can they begin without us?
However, plans of Europe and the USA to create a new system of energy security are still nothing but plans. Baku-Erzurum project is still being developed, stressed Toagnyan, and Europe will face serious problems. After Saparmurat Niyazov’s death Turkmenistan headed for diversification of gas resources distribution, signed with Russia and Kazakhstan an agreement on Trans-Caspian gas pipeline construction. According to the analyst that can become a serious hindrance for European plans to obtain a monopoly for Caspian gas resources. But Gazprom also is not exactly enamoured with the idea of the South stream.
Vladimir Putin stated repeatedly that Russia was a “reliable partner” and that violation of European energy security was simple not on. Moreover, according to Putin, Russia is just a guarantor of the European energy security. From the very inflexion of these statements and from how frequent they are repeated, it becomes obvious that Russian authorities are seriously anxious with positions of Gazprom on European markets and with plans of gas supplies diversifications. At the same time Gazprom tries to establish alternative supplies in Turkey, i.e. to lurch Baku-Erzrum project.
As a matter of fact Gazprom is already supplying Turkey with gas, but Turkey is not still a transit country for Russian gas. “One should take into account an upturn in economics of Turkey, although at the moment it is fully secured. It cannot be excluded that in this situation Turkey will use its strategic position and become a transit country, as, for example, Ukraine does,” reckons Anvar Amirov.
Prospects of the so boosted project Blue Stream-2 (a pipeline via Black Sea in Turkey) are still obscure; no definite terms have been announced. Now a new agreement between Turkey, Italy and Greece has been signed, and that gives possibility for rapid realization of TGI project. Thus it’s high time for thinking of the Blue Stream-2 seriously.
27 июля 2007, 17:47

Ivan Grinko
Mikhail Zakharov