Remember the video-messages Osama bin Laden was posting on the Internet a couple of years ago? Now the Kremlin has adopted the same tactic when it comes to bullying neighbouring Ukraine. The message is clear: Kiev must abandon all NATO or EU hopes and quit siding with Georgia if it wants a "predictable" and "comfortable" relation with Russia. Brrrr…shivers down the spine, with a repeat of the January gas crisis very much in sight…Here comes gas-terrorist Medvedev - a "video blog" posted on the Kremlin website:
If you look closely, you will find common traits with this video - the self-victimization, the evil "others", the attempt to come across as a peaceful and wise leader:
The fellas in the upper quarters of Gazprom need some serious upgrading in gangsta’ talk. They’re so out of the loop that they named a $2.5 billion joint venture with a Nigerian gas company…NIGAZ.
Ouch..already Facebook groups accuse the Russian giant of racism.. here’s the BBC report.
A marketing blunder in Nigeria has got online communities all of a twitter, after a joint oil and gas venture with Russia was named Nigaz.
Nigerians No Nigaz, a group formed on the social networking site Facebook, says the name could be pronounced in a way offensive to black people. Users of Twitter have also expressed disbelief at the decision. "Russian & Nigerian companies have formed new oil firm called… Nigaz. I’m not lying," says Osa Oyegun, under her Twitter name ChocolateMezzo. The topic has prompted hundreds of tweets. Henry Makiwa, known as makiwahenry, said: "Lol of the day: Russian/Nigerian oil conglomerate has had PR branding blunder after naming joint company ‘Nigaz’."
If Ceausescu would have lived and hit oil, Bucharest would have probably looked like Astana: an alien mix between Soviet-style and modernist buildings, such as the Pyramid of Peace and Accord - designed by sir Norman Foster. The thing cost 50 million euros and is only one of three different projects bearing the signature of the famous architect.
Astana reflects perfectly the personality cult of president Nursultan Nazarbaev, who just celebrated 20 years of non-interrupted reign in Kazakhstan. He’s the only USSR leader to have stayed in power until now.
Media freedom? Opposition rallies? Internet freedom? Forget about it.. And by all means, don’t ever mention Borat..it’s a national offence.
Yet everybody wants to be friends with the oil-rich country bordering Russia and China and almost as big as whole Western Europe. NATO needs its cooperation for the war in Afghanistan, the EU wants some of its lavish energy ressources. But so do Russia and China, and Nazarbaev has been around long enough to know how to play this game and let everyone believe he is their friend.
Here is how the Norman Foster pyramid looks like from the inside.
And watch some more Kazakh talent thrown for NATO guests invited to Astana for a security forum with partner countries:
A dose of Russian humour from Moscow’s military district chorus. Very much appreciated by the audience, as you can see from the video below.
"Should Ukraine join NATO, there’s no need to quarrel or be mad, we’ll just cut their gas!"
"Europe also has problems, American special forces are already there. But we’ll just smile - it’s their own business - and at night we’ll just cut gas to Europe as well."
"We can solve any problem, we just need to know where the Gazprom faucet is, so that we can cut the gas for everybody, just in case!"
and if you’re into some more Russian tunes, here is the Gazprom anthem. Warning! VERY KITCH!
Yesterday’s record fine against US giant Intel - $ 1.45 billion - is yet another example of EU’s double standards when it comes to American companies and Russian monopolies.
Not that TransatlanticPolitics is contesting the accuracy of the EU commission’s findings - the bloc’s guardian of fair competition rules - but it is at least dubious that no probe has been launched into any Russian company/monopoly on the EU market.
"Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years," competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said.
"If we smell that there is something rotten in the state, we act."
It seems however that Gazprom’s actions on the EU market have no smell, despite its ownership of half of the trading floor in one of Europe’s major gas hubs in Austria - Baumgarten.
No formal inquiry has been launched by the EU into this matter, although Gazprom basically has free access to priviliged information about all the gas being traded there.
"Knowing, for example, that one company’s future contracts become mature on this particular date, another county needs gas on that date, if you know all the pricing information, you can undercut these limited opportunities that began to emerge at Baumgarten for more market-based pricing of gas giving this arbitrage a possibility. So, it’s crucial that the EU is examining the operation of that gas hub and information systems and make sure the information is not being used by one company or another company to undercut competition," US deputy assistant secretary of state Matt Bryza told EUobserver in April. Similar statements here.
Asked about this issue, a spokesman for the EU commission said the matter was not relevant, since Gazprom could only follow the amounts of gas currently traded and not influence any future transactions.
They’re so out of the loop that they named a $2.5 billion joint venture with a Nigerian gas company…NIGAZ.
Bucharest would have probably looked like Astana: an alien mix between Soviet-style and modernist buildings, such as the Pyramid of Peace and Accord - designed by sir Norman Foster. The thing cost 50 million euros and is only one of three different projects bearing the signature of the famous architect.
Loading ...