How Russia Is About to Dramatically Change the World

[Zippyjuan]

Russia's economy and military are too weak to be considered a super power.

http://russiatooat.blogspot.com/

If one thing is clear hear it is that attaining a recovery in Russia's economic fortunes at this point is going to be no easy feat, as Trust Investment Bank put it in their latest report, October data for the world’s largest energy exporter suggest “an almost complete absence of clear signs of recovery” since industrial output slumped and capital investment fell. October capital investment was still down 17.9 percent while industrial output dropped an annual 11.2 percent in October worse than the September reading. Even unemplyment was up again, at 7.7%, although as the World Bank pointed out, this is the result of the same seasonal factors which lead to the fall in unemployment over the summer.

On the other hand, this is by no means a one way street, since disposable incomes climbed a monthly 6 percent in October and rose 3.9 percent compared with the same period last year, registering their biggest annual jump since September 2008, according to provisional data from the Federal Statistics Service, while wage declines eased with wages falling an annual 4.5 percent, compared with a 4.9 percent annual decline in September. And retail sales, which had previously fallen for nine consecutive months, the longest period of declines on record, suddenly sprang back to life, with October retail sales rose 3.2 percent from September and declined by 8.5 percent on an annual basis as compared with a 9.9 percent drop the month before.



Other data also show this mixed picture. Monthly GDP Indicator data from VTB Capital, based on the PMI surveys for the Russian manufacturing and service sectors, continued to show economic contraction on an annual basis in October, butthe rate of decline eased for the fifth consecutive month. The Indicator showed a 0.6% annual contraction, the slowest rate seen suring the current eleven-month period of continuous decline.

 

[Cinderella]

Zippy, could this be part of the reason Russia pursued former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, head of Yukos Oil Company? I know the charges were based on embezzling from his own company and money laundering, but he did in fact control the majority of oil production in Russia.

Russia will always be on the verge of changing things on Planet Earth. It is the biggest national landmass by far, hence the German and later the American obsession of Russia.
Many folks are unaware of this. It is really what puts the US in a similar catagory...

Or maybe the Russian state is vying to get back in power and using control of oil as a means. Is this a power play by Putin? That guy is still the power behind the throne in Russia.

 

[canadian4ronpaul]

mmm im not so sure. forgive me i have been pretty ignorant in political and economic spheres since i arrived in petersburg but i think you have too much faith in russia becoming a super power. sure they have the potential but this country has alot of serious domestic issues that need to get sorted out first, which probably aint gonna go away for a long time.

corruption here is the norm. bribing police officers is a daily occurence. property rights arent protected at all, you can forget about suing anyone or using the police or court system at all. the average life span for a russian man is something like 55 because of the health problems and chronic drinking and smoking. I read an article the other day about homeless here...its something like 2-3% of the population. outside of petersburg and moscow people have noooo money at all. their population is falling faster than europe's.. though i think i heard recently it is stabilizing again. another interesting thing is the complete lack of faith that all russians seem to have. none of them think russia is heading anywhere but back down and back into dictatorship.

it is interesting though, to see what else putin is holding.

 

[Zippyjuan]

I agree that despite not having the title at this time that Putin is in charge and that they are trying to use energy to use as leverage for influence. It is basically the only thing they have going for them right now. It is a major portion of their economy and about their only source of foreign trade income. Beyond Putin, the country is run by the corrupt oligarchs and any who get in the way like Mikhail Khodorkovsky are taken care of.

Land mass alone does not make a super power. Britain was once a global super power- with a tiny fraction of the land the US has. China is a no-longer sleeping giant and is awakening. They will have a much bigger impact on the world than Russia will.

 

[dimaniak]

FYI Mikhail Khodorkovsky worked for Rothshilds...

 

[nobody's_hero]

The Cold War is over, folks.

 

[silverhandorder]

Mikhail Khodorkovsky was an oligarch like all others he just broke from their common understanding (started to invest in politics) and was crucified for that. Everyone of their oligarchs can be tried by the same charges that Khodorkovsky was on. Not only that but they changed the law and sued him retrospectively.

 

[CTAC]

... the country is run by the corrupt oligarchs and any who get in the way like Mikhail Khodorkovsky are taken care of.

Khodorkovsky is one of those corrupt oligarchs. The way you wrote it suggests that Khodorkovsky was nice guy who is a victim of oligarchs. He was guilty as hell, and very well deserves what he got. The only question you may ask is why not everyone else is in jail yet.

Russia's economy and military are too weak to be considered a super power.

I'd agree with you on economy, but not on military. Russia military power may be weak compared to the Soviet Union might, but not anyone else. 20,000 nuclear bomb arsenal is sufficient to cool anyone's head. Russian abilities to project force around the globe are very modest when compared to the US, yet it would exceed anyones capacity in the countries surrounding Russia. It was demonstrated very well on 8/8/8 when around 10,000 Russian troops fought 12,000 US backed Georian troops.

 

[AmericaFyeah92]

Over the next few days, Russia will change the world. It has completed a new oil pipeline and port complex that sets Russia up to become a more powerful oil exporter than Saudi Arabia. The ramifications for Europe and Asia are profound: The shape of the global economy—and the global balance of power—will be altered forever.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6872.5382.0.0

Russia pumped more than 10 million barrels of oil per day during November. With Saudi Arabian production falling, Russia is now the world’s largest oil exporter. Toss in Russia’s natural gas exports, and Russia is the biggest energy superpower in the world, by far. That does not even count Russia’s massive uranium resources and nuclear expertise.

Hence, we are escalating in Afghanistan

http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080619.wafghanpipeline19/BNStory/Afghanistan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Afghanistan_Pipeline

 

[CTAC]

http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080619.wafghanpipeline19/BNStory/Afghanistan

The so-called Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline has strong support from Washington because the U.S. government is eager to block a competing pipeline that would bring gas to Pakistan and India from Iran.

There is just one small technical problem there. There are two pipelines already in Turkmenistan. One to Russia, and one newly built to China. And it turned out that Turkmens were cheating on everyone, and there is simply not enough gas to fill all pipelines.