Russia Steals Energy Deal

When it comes to economic negotiations with other countries, you can bet that the unjustifiably arrogant Bush administration will almost always lose.

Like members of the once entitled Big-3 auto producers competing with Toyota, the BushCo Big-3 -- Bush, Rice and Cheney -- are a bust.

Just how much egg-on-the-face experienced by the Bush-Rice team was not revealed by the American media. But it is revealed in foreign publications. The article I’m relating is by Amabassador Bhadrakumar in the Asia Times.

Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service, his assignments including the Soviet Union, South Korea,  Germany, Afghanistan,  Pakistan, Turkey, and Kuwait. His body of knowledge is beyond question.

Last week, on the sidelines of the Group of Eight (G-8), George W. Bush administered a diplomatic snub to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Supposedly on the sly the day before, Bush had sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Prague to sign a deal to install a US radar system as part of its missile defense system in Central Europe, Bush characterized Medvedev patronizingly as a “sharp guy.”

Putin and Medvedev both had made it abundantly clear that they vociferously oppose the missile defense system in Europe, and again Medvedev chastised Bush regarding the Prague deal.

But both Putin and Medvedev have had the last laugh.

Medvedev outmaneuvered both European and US rivals in the struggle for Turkmen gas and oil.  The giant Russian natural gas extractor, Gazprom, was formerly led by Medvedev. So BushCo should not have been surprised when Gazprom flexed its muscles under Medvedev and made a killer deal with Libya, and with perhaps more to come in other African countries.

A week ago, Medvedev announced that Gazprom plans to build a pipeline across the Mediterranean to pump Libyan gas to  Europe.

It will handle the entire output of Libya's gass, oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) designated for export to Europe and the US.

With Russia also cozying up to Iran and its cache of oil and natural gas, the jingoism of Rice and Bush has disappeared with -- of all things --  diplomacy with Iran.

Western statesmen from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to French President Nikolas Sarkozy and former Italian premier Romano Prodi expected an energy agreement with Libya, after the Bush administration had started business negotiations. 

Putin promptly trumped western efforts, for only last April, Putin visited Tripoli less than a month before he left office. Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi and Putin decided to jointly handle all of Libya's energy resources. 

How can Putin keep from laughing his ass off when Bush looks deeply into his eyes (his soul)?

Apparently that tactic wasn’t tried with Medvedev, but it obviously wouldn’t work anyway.

Putin and Medvedev, though unhappy with Bush’s deployment of the missile defense system in Central Europe, have apparently decided to let George have his toys while they steal sweet trade deals from us and European leaders.

Let’s hope the trade deal theft will end there, the US being highly dependent on foreign fossil fuels. 

And it is a vulnerability greatly compounded by our lack of an alternative energy policy.