Peter Brookes, who I believe was former Navy intel, echoes many of the
concerns voiced here over Sino-Russia relations.
The more I think about it, with oil production & profits now returned to the
government in Russia (and its Chinese partners in Yukos) there is a tremendous
opportunity for arbitrage in favor of the Chinese and Russian. The problems at
Yukos contributed to a steep increase in oil prices. With state control of oil,
high oil prices benefits the Russia government directly while conversely
hurting Western powers. The Russian/Chinese Yukos partners can produce oil for
domestic consumption below market prices (which would not happen in free market
societies) while charging inflated market rates per barrel to export oil to the
West, Japan etc. Think of the economic impact in the US of oil at $50/$55 a
barrel and the synergy it creates for Russia and China (with state owned oil
companies) to be able to pump & consume oil at $10-15 a barrel cheaper.
BEIJING BEAR HUG
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/37660.htm
Posted by a NIPer.......