- Jay Ashworth Hey! That's the next Clancy novel!
- Alan Petrillo It gets yet messier when transnational corporations get involved.
- Jay Ashworth Yup.
*Actually*, the next Clancy novel is "Follies of War", the one about the Iran hostage rescue I think; a Chuck fanfic author mooted it in one of his stories, and I hope to talk him into writing it with me. - Joseph Drapac "Yanukovich and Putin, who regards Ukraine as strategically vital to Moscow's interests, are widely believed to have struck a bargain whereby Ukraine will get cheaper Russian gas and possibly credits in exchange for backing away from the EU."
http://www.reuters.com/.../us-ukraine-idUSBRE9B60DH20131209 
reuters.comProtesters fell Lenin statue, tell Ukraine's president 'you're next'Protesters fell Lenin statue, tell Ukraine's president 'you're next'- Alan Petrillo True, but they've also threatened to call all of Ukraine's debts to the Russian state bank due immediately. Carrot, meet Stick.
- Jay Ashworth Yeah; NPR/PRI have been covering the Russia/Ukraine stuff this week.
- Alan Petrillo So has BBC.
- Jay Ashworth As for "what it means"? It *means* that you stand on territory and declare that it's yours *and defend it successfully from people who try to take it away from you*.
- Joseph Drapac Yeah, I don't recall the Reuters article describing the stick.
OK, so you're a natural gas producer, and you need to put a pipeline across someone's land in order to reach customers on the other side.
First,
you use economic blackmail as a stick to force this person to allow you
to build the pipeline, with the promise of economic benefit as a
carrot. Then, through a quirk of the law, you force this person to buy
the section of pipeline that goes across their land. Of course, since
pipeline is hideously expensive, they can't afford this, so you offer a
large loan on attractive terms to help them pay for it. Then, through
another quirk in the law, instead of shipping your gas through their
pipeline, you force them to buy all of the gas that goes into their
pipeline at the property line. Bulk natural gas in large quantities is
also hideously expensive, and the poor property owner can't afford to
buy huge quantities of it, so you offer him another loan, with
attractive terms, to pay for the gas that you're forcing him to buy.
So
now the land owner has bought a pipeline, at a price you set, paid for
with a loan, with terms you set, and he has to buy the gas going through
it, at prices you set, paid for with a loan, with terms you set, and he
has to sell that gas to customers on the other side, at prices you
set. And if he does anything you don't like then you can call those
loans due immediately, and financially wreck him. Or you can cut off
the flow of gas and financially wreck him.
Sounds like a hell of a racket, yes?
This is exactly what Russia is doing to Ukraine.
This is exactly why Ukraine is hesitant about signing economic accords with the EU.
Russia
has historically used the national natural gas company, Gazprom, and
their state banking system as economic weapons against enemies and
allies alike, and they're doing it now to keep Ukraine from forming
closer ties with the EU.
No comments:
Post a Comment