Well, that's what the Trot-lot will start yelling any minute now as the Russo-Georgian dispute threatens to escalate and involve the West. Being totally ignorant of the issues involved I have wondered during the course of the day what, apart from Russia wishing to dominate their former 'colonies' (and why not?), was the bigger issue that lay behind it. I am obliged to Richard Beeston of The Times for mentioning that magical word without which no war these days is worth fighting - oil! According to Beeston:
But the help [from the West] is also partly a means of protecting the oil pipeline across Georgia that carries crude from the Caspian to the Black Sea, the only export route that bypasses Russia’s stranglehold on energy exports from the region.
That's good enough for me - so let's hear it for plucky little, er, what was it called again - oh yes, plucky little Georgia, splendid chaps, every man of them! Ooops, and women, of course!
This must be the only time in history when a war over a "vital" oil pipeline was accompanied by a $15 drop in the crude price.
A war for oil this ain't.
Posted by: Tim Newman | Friday, 15 August 2008 at 07:42
Tim, I think you're too focused on a oil segment. Wider look is needed here.
Posted by: Tatyana | Saturday, 16 August 2008 at 14:26