The following post was originally published June 8th, 2014 on my Everything PR News, once the most influential PR news source in Europe in English. The material contained in the story is highly intuitive and meaningful given the timing and events that occurred subsequently. I am posting the story here for a number of reasons. First and foremost, my upcoming book that reveals the true nature of pro-Russian support in the world frames these fundamental crises via such analysis and reporting. The fact the story was deleted once we no longer owned Everything PR News is, I believe, significant as well. The reader will find this
The archived story you are about to read shows what I believe is part of the primary cause of today’s west versus east conflict. The players we see in today’s detente, they are prominently featured in this news story from 2014. In “Confessions of a Kremlin Troll”, the essence of modern Russophobia and anti-Russian geo-policy will be laid out bare, as will many of the most influential so-called “Putin trolls” we’ve seen throughout digital media. Here is a deep analysis of the real reasons behind Euromaidan AND Arab Spring. —- Phil Butler —-
Ukraine, Arab Spring, Cold War II and Price Wars Hardly Disguised
Ukraine, Kiev’s Maidan Square protests, the current US versus Russia mess, all this is about gas and profit, and nothing else.
When US President Barack Obama began the campaign to “punish” Vladimir Putin and Russia over interference in Ukraine, we all should have known there was more to the story. And there is. As it turns out, Ukraine’s violence, and most of the unrest abroad, in fact, is a competition in between huge investment partners, gas companies like Exxon Mobile, and Russia’s Gazprom. As for the people, the public? They are just collateral damage, pawns or meaningless in a worldwide corporate game for profit. The Obama administration and almost all the western governments are involved in one way or other, are fighting a price war over gas against Russia.
Sounds conspiratorial and unfeasible, doesn’t it? But the intuitive and honest reader somehow knows it’s all true. All you have to do is ask a few fairly simple questions, know a few key names, and see the logic bankers and investors always apply. Here’s a few questions to head your thinking into the right direction:
- Why were economic sanctions applied to swiftly and forcefully against Putin’s and Russia’s oligarchs and industrialists?
- Who will benefit from the Ukraine/natural gas situation if an alternative to Russia supply of Europe is created?
- Who, and for how long is involved in capitalizing on a European market for alternative liquid natural gas (LNG) shipments?
- What other factors involving LNG amplify the need for disrupting Russia’s market for natural gas?
The Answers – More Complicated Than the Questions
Before I answer some of these for you, please think about why the son of a US Vice President ends up working for the biggest Ukrainian gas company. Then wonder why a college chum of Secretary of State John Kerry ends up at the same Cyprus-based Burisma Holdings? These two are bit players though, in a money power play of staggering proportions. Like something straight out of an Orwellian nightmare, industrialists who pull the strings on powerful politicians now hide in plain sight, dealing in lives, greed, corporate skulduggery all disguised as lobbying, aggressive business, economic upturn, and so on. Look at the dogma, then look at the separate reality hidden in each:
- President Obama‘s “Climate Action Plan” (Billionaire Richard Branson is in love) – The plan promotes natural gas above all other energy sources
- Whatever you heard about the “Odessa Massacre“ – it’s about ensuring an investment from the west in the only LNG “regasification” plant in Ukraine
- Russia’s Gazprom & A Secret UN Gas Cadre – Fox broke this gas conspiracy, but Obama’s constituents represent another energy cartel
- A licensing melee (Lebanon offshore) has begun in between energy companies like Royal Dutch Shell, Marathon oil in the US, and others
- Mega-firm Baker & McKenzie instrumental in world natural gas – here’s their guide(and above from the PDF) showing North Africa (Arab Spring states’) potential
- Smaller players like former PR/lobbying firm MWW’s VP Ankit Desai, who’s migration from a key Obama supporter to the energy sector (LNG in focus,Cheniere) show the ever widening spider web of connections in between big government, big business, and big profits
Taking the points one at a time, Obama’s focus on natural gas, while profitable and feasible for investors with money in LNG shipping, could be worse for Mother Earth than coal ever was. Also, one reason Richard Branson is so enamored with the Obama plan is he’s heavily invested in alternative and “Green” energy via Virgin Green Fund, which is in turn closely associated business wise with the likes of Royal Dutch Shell and other energy titans. I chose Sir Richard for a reason. He’s the entrepreneur I admired most, the one I thought least likely to be involved in any quest involving energy and profit at the risk of people’s safety and futures. But he is the best of a list of lesser gas gods out there willing to do whatever it takes to win.
On the second point, years before the current Ukraine situation western investors planned to undercut Gazprom by diverting shipments of natural gas to so-called “regasification” plants across Europe. The process of shipment of natural gas from Azerbaijan, Qatar, Israel, “Arab Spring” countries across North Africa, and even the United States, requires a processing chain with a “gasification plant at the supply end, and a “regasification” facility at the other. The Odessa facility being built on the Black Sea is the only one North of Greece ( close to completion. To ensure Odessa did not go the way of Crimea, the public there had to fear Kiev more than Vladimir Putin, in a base sense. In effect, western investors ordered the horrendous deaths of over 40 people. This will prove out over the course.
The third point really highlights a gas war over Ukraine as a central disruptive of the deals currently in place between Russia/Gazprom and EU energy partners. As you can see in the graphic from Invest Ukraine above, natural gas prices are being continually driven up. What’s not shown in this video is how Russia has a vast price advantage when compared to other sources. The pipeline to Europe, cheap Russian reserves, and volume price deals have given Russia a vast competitive advantage. And too, Russia’s re-emergence has been fueled by natural gas exports. This report by actuary Gail Tverberg goes in depth into the dynamics of east versus west price warring. The graphic below from here report showing profit to be made by American companies, and the Qatar or Azerbaijan groups, if price parity comes into play.
Right now Russia provides relatively cheap fuels to Europe and other partners, but the US can ship even more cheaply to many potential buyers. That is IF Russia is out of the picture. Question one up top is fairly easy to answer, the cost of natural gas out of Russia is too cheap, and the United State’s LNG producers, Exxon and Qatar’s, they want Russia out of the game. In answer to question two in the first list above, whoever secures the new resources and pieces of the current market Russia currently has, that’s who stands to benefit. As for “who” and “how long” these business deals have been in the making? The same old energy and investment players began making deals in Ukraine as soon as the Berlin Wall came down. Nixing Russia competition and profit also bears geo-strategic and policy factors we’ve all grown up with. The neo-cons and liberals are in the pocket of hard core Russophobes and industrialists bent on an isolated and non-competitive Russia. That’s another story though.
Point four brings to the forefront the legal and ownership aspects of world natural gas reserves. Even if supplies are identified, and competitive potential versus Gazprom and other companies established, price and other considerations present hurdles. This is where Joe Biden’s son, massively powerful lawyering firms like Baker & McKenzie come into play. The same oil empires that once played world energy domination, are still at play over rights and new discoveries, as well as the overall market.
The fifth point goes to future intent, North Africa and the so-called Arab Spring shift taking place there. It’s easy to identify now, the root cause of most worldwide conflict, at least in part being a battle over resources, markets, power, and money. Of course, we all knew this, but never before have the players in the game been so transparent. What I contend here, is incontestable. Ukraine oligarchs, Russian or America aligned, are just soldiers in a bigger game of world economic competition. My last point will illustrate just how incorporated business executives and companies have become with one another. Calling a group a “cartel” these days is easier than at any time in history. Cartels are formed and dissolved at a moment’s notice. In a segment, we see the United State’s first couple, alongside Qatar’s ruler, as if dealings behind the scenes did not play on world events.
Lastly, the migration of bit players on the micro-scale of lobbying and influence attest to an economics in world business unlike any in history. It seems as if everybody from the corner news person to presidents of nearly every country have vested interests that far outweigh any loyalty, ideal, or in the end public interest. I made note of Ankit Desai, who was working for Obama adviser Michael Kempner’s MWW Group. There’s no coincidence here. Desai was the Politica Director for Joe Biden when he was a senator. He was the budget director for current Secretary of State John Kerry’s presidential campaign, among other key influencer positions. Such mid-level executives, Senator’s sons, and other intermediaries permeate our business world. It’s not that these people are necessarily evil, it’s just that the corporate ideals and dogma they’re mired in, privy to, and dedicated to, have become so outlandishly anti-citizen as to be real evil.
The video below is a preview of the LNG propaganda to come from these players. The truth in the video, obscures the underlying evils of fast tracking technologies like fracking, of the human toll in the wake of huge business moves. In essence, the Obama administration is behind a steamroller with one premise at its core.
“Profit for American corporations is worth any human price, as long as the greater good is achieved.” — This may be in the DNA of Obama’s administration —
Listening to this ad hype, I now believe the people involved actually believe in their own flawed dogma. The point here being, Desai (see his Act on LNG Exports on Twitter) is one of the hundreds of mid-level players whose roles are fuzzy at best. Good or evil, lobbyists and business people have lost sight outside their own engagements. On the one hand, these people are fund-raisers, and on the other they seem to appear from nowhere. If this were cloak and dagger stuff, looking at his G+ pals might bear fruit, but the point is obvious for me. With enough resource to full investigate all this, finding a Watergate in the Arab Spring and Ukraine affair might be child’s play. The most interesting of those on Google Plus “adding” Desai is Sierra Club’s Brian Caughell (formerly of the Obama for America campaign). Just what a senior person in one of the world’s most famous environmental groups is doing adding the G+ profile (however incomplete) to his list of friends, I’ll allow the reader to calculate. My point should be obvious, our country, our world, has become a land of infiltrators and profit spies intent on buying and selling of the world’s last remaining resources. ell
The “cartel-like” activity Fox seems to have ferreted out, is simplistic compared to America’s, Britain’s, and particularly connection from huge players like Qatar, and even an emerging Israeli supply contingent. The linkages are far too complex to show fully here, but here’s some instances:
- The Qatar-UK connection including Europe’s biggest LNG port, South Hook – Qatar Petroleum International and Exxon Mobil are vested in LNG price hiking
- Qatar Petroleum was selling Libya crude even before Colonel Muammar Gaddafiwas ousted in Libya’s “Arab Spring”
- Two years ago a deal was struck in between Qatar Gas, Algeria, and the United States suppliers to provide LNG to Ukraine – two years ago!
- Azerbaijan, mentioned in the deal above, has also entered into this fray via the “southern pipeline” around Russia, to Europe.
- On the Russian side, the petrodollar is under attack in retribution and in counterbalancing this western gas attack
- Blackrock and other massively powerful groups have already bet on disrupting Russia’s market even going so far as to buy adwords (as below)
Intermediate Conclusions
What we are seeing can only be described as a paradigm shift in power politics and business. Once obscured corporate interference is now so readily apparent as to make anyone wonder at the arrogance of those involved. Are politicians and lobbyist, investors and CEOs so insulated from public opinion now? Are we seeing an all out resource and profit Armageddon being played out in the early stages?And the players, how do we characterize them? It’s easy to depict Barack Obama or even billionaires like Richard Branson as either Orwellian evil doers, or profit-seeking puppets controlled by even more powerful men or groups. But are they? Or has the business so interrupted the cycle of intellect and reason, that the Branson’s of the world, brilliant as they are, become dumb or obtuse to the greater ramifications of their business?
Perhaps I’m letting off the hook truly evil men and groups, but motivations and the truth appeal to me, as they occur. Looking at the client lists of immensely power PR firms like MWW, I find ample proof the bigger picture may in fact be obscure. For where entities like Spectra Energy, investment powerhouses like ING vested in LNG worldwide, peripheral energy groups like Greenwood, MWW or any PR group from Edelman to Torossian’s 5WPR has real issues where conflicts occur. I imagine a world of business actions, running wholesale and almost chaotically the fate of billions of human beings. This is the “obtuse” garden where billionaires get too busy and maybe too dumb to really act smartly. The alternative view leaves us with evil bastards who could care less about the environment, people, or even their own legacy. The coming race to capitalize on all the world’s shale natural gas will be something greater than even the California gold rush.
As for the civilians and hapless citizens of all these countries, living, dying, and/or taxed by governmental systems (and corporations) Ukrainians east and west are but pawns and victims. No matter how we slice the current economic and political situation, people are dying and being harmed for profit. Whether we choose to conform to the idiot theory, the coincidence theory, or the evil bastards theory, the end result is the same. Selling natural gas, the gasoline of the now and future, is all any leader is really focused on. All the evidence is readily available, to show I am correct. It’s no coincidence Libya has the biggest undiscovered natural gas reserves as yet untapped, in the world. It’s no coincidence those few pro-Russian activists in Odessa were savagely slain. Further investigation will surely reveal, an idiot or an evil bastard businessperson had them killed.
The Russians simply cannot lead the world in the next energy race. Exxon or Shell, the Blackrock, the Queen Mother or a Rothschild, will probably be betting your life, or someone you knows life on it.
