Petras, Putin and Conoco
posted
to www.marxmail.org on September 30, 2004
Shortly after the terrorist attack on Beslan,
James Petras wrote an attack on Chechen nationalism
that contained the following:
"Anglo-US governments and their 'political fronts'
provide sanctuary to the Chechen terrorist leaders as part of their strategy to
sustain a war of attrition against Russia and especially Putin
using the Chechen people as guinea pigs. The outcome of Chechen independence
would most likely resemble Kosovo – a client state, with a big US military
base, run by gangsters and warlords, trafficking in drugs, sex-slaves and
military contraband – and deeply involved in fomenting separatist terror along
Russia’s southern border – namely the Republic of Dagestan (which is
multi-ethnic and close to the oil and gas rich Caspian Sea). The enemy of Russia
is not an autonomous Chechen Republic
but a terrorist gangster-run state, controlled by US and British security
forces, aimed at further dismembering Russia
and destroying Putin’s efforts to reform the Russian
state."
full: http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=4747
This facile analogy between Kosovo and Chechnya
can only be made if one ignores political economy. The breakup of Yugoslavia
was intended to remove one of the few remaining legacies of socialism in Eastern
Europe. Secessionist movements in Croatia,
Slovenia, Bosnia
and Kosovo were encouraged as a battering ram against the state-owned
enterprises favored by Milosevic and elements of the Yugoslav army. In Serbia,
after CIA-backed "dissidents" finally came to power in a coup against
Milosevic, they began dismantling the Titoist base of
the economy. The end result has been economic misery.
What was the model for these CIA-backed
"dissidents"? None other than the Yeltsin government in Russia,
whose successor now presides over a class-divided society where capitalism is
being built free of the counterproductive excesses of the Yeltsin era.
Although much is made over NGO agitation on behalf of the Kosovars and the Chechens respectively, the contrast
between them and the real locus of power cannot be sharper. Not only has Washington
has refused to confront Yeltsin or Putin over the war
against the Chechens, President Clinton stated that Yeltsin was a Lincoln-esque figure trying to preserve the union against
secessionists.
Putin has also ingratiated himself
to Washington. You'll recall that
just at the time that the claim that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq
was being debunked for good, Putin stepped forward to
say that Russian intelligence had proof that they did exist. His proof was
about as solid as Donald Rumsfeld's.
By serving as an effective steward over the capitalist
transformation of Russia
and an accomplice to US imperialist goals, Putin has
earned George W. Bush's undying friendship. The May 20, 2002 Guardian reported
that Bush has even coined a pet name for him: "Pootie-Poot".
The article quotes Condoleezza Rice on their male bonding: "To see the
kind of relationship that Presidents Bush and Putin
have developed and to see Russia
firmly anchored in the west, that's really a dream of 300 years, not just of
the post-cold war era". Time magazine quoted a former Putin
aide as saying the Russian leader "devoured an enormous amount of
information on Bush and everything related to him". That sounds a little
bit like making an effort to read every novel ever written by Tom Clancy.
Reading today's NY Times would certainly go a long way in
allaying fears about Western imperialist plots to break up Russia
in order to seize control over the oil fields. It turns out that the Russians
themselves are all too happy to cut deals with multinationals in much the same
way that rival mafias hammer out a deal to share in drug profits. Not only has Conoco become a partner in Lukoil,
they share a common interest in robbing the Iraqi people of one of their few
assets: oil.
NY Times, September
30, 2004
ConocoPhillips Buys Stake in Lukoil
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW (AP) --
In a deal paving the way for future joint ventures, U.S.
oil giant ConocoPhillips on Wednesday won an auction
with a bid of nearly $2 billion for the Russian government's 7.6 percent stake
in Russia's Lukoil -- the world's No. 2 oil company by reserves.
In the biggest privatization in Russia's
history, ConocoPhillips offered $1.988 billion, only
a fraction above the $1.928 billion starting price.
``Of course, we are satisfied with the biggest price in Russia's
privatization,'' said Lukoil vice president Leonid Fedun. ``We are expecting a significant increase in the
capitalization of the company.''
Immediately after winning the auction, ConocoPhillips announced in a joint statement that it
planned to increase its stake to 20 percent, which would allow it to record a
share of the company's reserves of 20.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in
its books.
It also announced that it had offered to buy a 17.5 percent
stake in a production sharing agreement allowing Lukoil
to develop Iraq's giant, 4 billion barrel West Qurna
field, and would pay another $374 million to secure a 30 percent stake in a new
joint venture to tap into rich Siberian oil reserves in the Timan
Pechora region.
``People were expecting a knock-out number,'' said Ronald
Smith, oil and gas analyst at the Renassiance Capital
investment bank of the auction results. ``We thought maybe they'll give a real
signal that Russian assets are undervalued. But they ConocoPhillips
got a great deal. If you look just at Timan Pechora -- it means they can add 12 percent to their liquid
reserves immediately.''
Lukoil's 1997 deal to drill at West
Qurna, one of the most promising Iraqi
oilfields, has hinged on approval of the new Iraqi administration.
``Iraq
is a wild card,'' Smith said. ``If that ever comes off, both companies will be
terribly tickled: no analysts include the Iraq
numbers in their reports, though.''
full: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Russia-Lukoil.html