Just saw this in google news search.
Apparently me and the Moscow Times think alike. So I'll just remind our pro-Russia membership on the forum, if you want to get mad at someone, get mad at people with these views who are right in Moscow.
(or, in a perfect world, how about being okay with free speech and a free marketplace of ideas)
Russia Will Regret Its Gas Deal With ChinaAs Europe cuts its dependence on Russian gas, it represents a fresh triumph of mind over matter. Its demand will be increasingly met by liquified natural gas and newly developed fracking technology. At the same time, engineers continue to make strides in energy saving, energy efficiency and alternative energy sources. The same process also structurally undermines long-term prices in the oil market.
Russia used to have a top-notch scientific establishment and industrial base.
In the 1990s, it could have joined the global innovation establishment by opening its economy to foreign investment and fostering its own entrepreneurial culture while assigning a supplementary role to its natural resources, i.e., using petrodollars for investment into education, science and infrastructure.
But that would have required establishing the rule of law, increasing openness and transparency and getting rid of layers of bureaucracy of all kinds — all of which is anathema to Putin's political system. So Russia became an oil kleptocracy of the worst kind — a dumb oil and gas producer with a huge chip on its shoulder and anger at the rest of the world for not paying it sufficient respect.By selling its natural gas to China at bargain-basement prices Russia is not mortgaging its future. It is mortgaging the future of Putin's Russia. Because the sooner Russia runs out of oil and gas — or the sooner their prices drop to the 1990s levels — the sooner Russia will get over its current petrodollar inebriation and starts seeking ways to become a prosperous, successful economy living by its brains, not nature's bounty.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/russia-will-regret-its-gas-deal-with-china/500828.html
I actually disagree with that a bit -- far as I know, Russia isn't peaking anytime soon, and once their behemoth neighbor is let in and Chinese are all over Russia not just funding the pipelines but then buying their farmland too, then China isn't ever going to leave.
Russia is not strong enough to resist Chinese control, the US is *just barely*, and we're the darn lone world superpower. And so, we aren't controlled by the Chinese despite China's massive investment here. Russia is another matter, Russia is the junior partner in that new alliance they just made. Russia may get the Tibet treatment one day.
Russia may never have real democracy now. Unless China ever does. Russia has hitched itself to China, eschewing the West, and it's a mistake that the Soviets never made. We'll see, I hope it works out for them, I don't want to see them bullied and pushed around by Chinese -- but, they did make their choice here, they say cuddly Angela Merkel and Obama were too much for them so okay.
Not sure what they're thinking there, dependence on China, and China having control over them. Was not wise, long term. If Russian leadership cares about the Motherland, they'd be wise to start making up with the Euros and Americans
*so that they have a hedge* against total Chinese domination, in the future.
At this point, any more cold war crap with the West only hurts Russia in the future, pushing Russia more into dependence on China. That's not smart.
I'm just saying the truth here, the strategic reality, anyone that thinks strategically can see it too. Just as the USSR always did, and was always wary of China. This is the truth, the Chinese try to bully us around but they can't quite do it *because we're the world superpower* but they still try. Now try being a regional power hitched to China, dependent on them, throwing all your eggs in with them. All over "pride." It's not wise, it's jumping from what you think is a frying pan into a fire (long term), it's foreign policy based on emotion and that's going to end up with Russia dominated by China which is a lot worse than pesky -- but soft and cuddly -- human rightsy democratic Europeans.
Russian leaders ought to wake up and realize they can use an Uncle Sam in their back pocket. This is exactly what Australia does to resist total domination from China.
(lucky for Russia, the West loves a convert, we'll always take you back and no hard feelings.
Just don't get all ate up by China in the meantime)