Backfire cont.

By Aussiegirl

Here's the Washington Post's take on the situation. Looks like another brilliant master stroke by that international genius Putin.

Frankly, the world has had a valuable object lesson - Putin cannot be trusted. The sooner this is realized, the safer the world will be.

Let's also dispense any pie-in-the-sky notions of Russia being of any help in the Iran crisis. Putin will make deals with all the enemies of the free world, he does not see himself as a partner with the free democracies of the world.

He's more at home with the thuggish despots and autocrats just like himself. Perhaps they should have their own club -- the T-8 -- the Terrorist 8 -- with regular meetings in places like Teheran, Damascus and Moscow.

Russia's Energy Politics

Even if Mr. Putin adopts this course, Western countries should absorb an important lesson. Without a prosperous or technologically advanced economy and with greatly reduced military strength, Mr. Putin hopes to restore Russia's world-power status through its control of gas. That inevitably means manipulating supplies to other countries for political ends. Western countries that do not wish to receive Mr. Putin's ultimatums -- from Germany, France and Britain to the United States, which is being pressed by Russia to line up as a major customer for new Arctic gas fields -- should realize that dependence on Russian gas is not consistent with "energy security." Instead they should develop alternative sources of supply, or a greater emphasis on nuclear energy. Russia cannot be allowed to hold its neighbors, or the world, hostage during a future cold winter.