Reducing Russian Influence in Europe
By 1991, the US had managed to regain its military prestige – destroyed by Vietnam. This was the 2nd Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded Kuwait; and the subsequent defeat of Iraq by a US-led coalition.
Immediately after that, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. It had broken up into 15 separate countries. Russia was the largest of these. It was also the largest country in the world, spanning 11 time zones. Rich in resources, it was also the only nuclear power on earth capable of challenging the US. It had to be destroyed. Between 1991 and 1999, Russia degenerated into a semi-failed state. It was looted systematically by the Anglo-American financier elite, and it was a shadow of its former self. With the emergence of Vladimir Putin as its new head of state, Russia began to turn itself around. Rising energy prices helped this process greatly. The US aim was to control oil pipelines from Russia to Europe, in order to gain leverage over both areas – policies that would favor the US. To do this, Washington focused on two areas of vital importance to both Russia and Europe: Yugoslavia and Chechnya.
Dismantling Yugoslavia
The first was the breakup and dissolution of Yugoslavia- it had to be neutralized as successful economic model. A state-based economic entity – this was not on. It had to be shown to the rest of the emerging countries of Eastern Europe that this model was no good. These new countries had to move to a “market-based” economy, in which finance, and not the state calls the shots. And all of this was tied to London and New York.
Furthermore, it was a close ally of Moscow, and thus had to be brought under the control of the US. Starting in 1989, a series of economic reforms pushed by the IMF/World Bank, resulted in Yugoslavia’s descent into hell. Under economic pressure, Croatia and Bosnia broke away from Serbia –the main component of Yugoslavia, and the region descended into a civil war. The 1995 Daytona Accords brought this war to an end.
Kosovo Geopolitics
The controversial piece of real estate today called Kosovo was a part of Yugoslavia and tied to Serbia until the NATO bombing campaign in 1999 demolished what remained of Serbia, and opened the way for the US to carve up the former Yugoslavia into tiny independent states.
Kosovo is a tiny parcel of land in one of the most strategic locations of Europe from a geopolitical standpoint of the US military objective of controlling oil flows and political developments from the oil-rich Middle East to Europe. By declaring its independence, Washington gains a weak state which it can fully control. So long as it remained a part of Serbia (allied to Russia), then NATO military control would be politically insecure.
US military control of Kosovo serves several purposes for Washington’s greater geo-strategic agenda. The Pentagon built a huge military base called Camp Bondsteel, in Kosovo. First, it enables greater US control over potential oil and gas pipeline routes into the EU from the Caspian and Middle East as well as control of the transportation corridors linking the EU to the Black Sea. It also protects the multi-billion dollar heroin trade which has grown to record dimensions since the US occupation of Afghanistan. Kosovo and Albania are major heroin transit routes into Europe. It’s a well-known fact that the government is in fact run by Kosovo Albanian organised crime, headed by one Hashim Thaci, aka the Snake. A Kosovo run internally by organised criminal networks is easy for NATO to control. It ensures a weak state which is far easier to bring under NATO domination. Furthermore, American efforts to reduce Russian influence also revolved around oil pipelines, bringing oil from the Caspian region into Europe. To avoid the bottlenecks through the Bosphorus, the US wanted to build a pipeline from the Bulgarian port of Burgas to Vlorus on the Adriatic (see map below).
It also protects the multi-billion dollar heroin trade which has grown to record dimensions since the US occupation of Afghanistan. Kosovo and Albania are major heroin transit routes into Europe. It’s a well-known fact that the government is in fact run by Kosovo Albanian organised crime, headed by one Hashim Thaci, aka the Snake. A Kosovo run internally by organised criminal networks is easy for NATO to control. It ensures a weak state which is far easier to bring under NATO domination. Furthermore, American efforts to reduce Russian influence also revolved around oil pipelines, bringing oil from the Caspian region into Europe. To avoid the bottlenecks through the Bosphorus, the US wanted to build a pipeline from the Bulgarian port of Burgas to Vlorus on the Adriatic (see map below).
This is the AMBO pipeline. Look at the map and see that the construction of the US military base, Camp Bondsteel is perfectly located to provide security to this US-controlled pipeline. Now, one understands why the US bombed Serbia in 1999- it was to free Kosovo from the Serbs, and build this base, for all the reasons I cited above.
Combined with NATO control over Afghanistan, the Pentagon is building a web of encirclement around Russia that is anything but peaceful.
These energy-rich regions of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were to provide the oil for the pipelines. Now, comes the interesting part. All the pipeline networks existing in these areas went through Russia. The idea was to reduce Russia’s influence, and not to increase it. New York did not want to give control of these new pipelines to Russia. The other alternative was to route such pipelines south through Iran – also a no-go for New York.
Now that Kosovo was secured, the next step was to go ahead and build a pipeline from Baku (Azerbaijan) to Ceyhan (Turkey), via Tiblisi (Georgia); In short, the BTC pipeline. To achieve this, the US created a war in Chechnya, in the Caucasus.
The ‘Great Game’ and the Pipeline Wars
A battle has been raging since the collapse of the Soviet Union over control of oil reserves in and adjoining the Caspian Sea, believed to be the largest untapped oil reserves found since those of the Alaska North Slope .The fight over the region, which, for almost a century, was the heart of Britain’s “Great Game” geopolitical manipulations to control Central Asia and contain Russia, has pulled into its vortex every State in the region from Russia to Turkey to Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. The strategic tug-of-war is being fought over decisions on the routing of pipelines to carry oil from the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan and the offshore fields near Baku in Azeri waters.
According to geophysical experts, the Caspian Sea Basin and adjacent land areas form one of the richest unexplored oil and gas reserves outside the Middle East, holding billions of barrels of crude oil, and some of the world’s largest reserves of natural gas. Oil and gas reserves are concentrated in the offshore Caspian waters of Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, as well as in the huge Tengiz field in far west Kazakhstan, and the world’s fourth largest natural gas reserves, in Turkmenistan. Unlike Russian oil and gas reserves, the Caspian fields are shallow and relatively easy to exploit, making them cheaper to develop. The critical issue is what route pipelines should take to market the oil and gas abroad.
Here is where the battle begins (see map above). Not only does Russia border the Caspian Sea, but also Iran. Present oil pipelines pass through embattled Grozny in Chechnya. Russia insists on having future oil export, from both Baku and Tengiz fields pass through Russian territory. Not surprisingly, the Central Asian republics as well as Turkey have other ideas. Russia would clearly like the Caspian Basin oil all to be piped to the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, and from there by tanker to Bulgaria and on to Greece for sales to Europe. This complex route would prevent the oil’s passing through rival Turkey. Russian-Turkish relations were not exactly cordial on the topic. Turkey told Moscow that Turkey would refuse passage rights to any more large oil tankers passing through the Bosphorus from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, claiming environmental danger of oil spills as the reason. Moscow replies that this is merely an excuse for Turkey, and that the real reason is to force the Central Asia pipelines to route overland through Turkey, in place of Russia.
In Kazakhstan, where the American oil major Chevron, has been active since 1987 in the Super-Giant Tengiz field. The field is Chevron’s largest new project since first opening Saudi Arabia 50 years ago. In the late 1990s, Chevron would go onto discovering another super-giant oil field in Kazakhstan’s north eastern coast line, called The Russians eventually agreed for a pipeline from Tengiz through Russia to Novorossiysk, after much pipeline politics.
The Baku factor
The second crossroads of Central Asian pipeline politics involves Azerbaijan, one of the world’s first major oil regions, discovered back in the l870s and pioneered by Sweden’s Nobel brothers. The offshore waters near Baku hold enormous reserves of untapped oil, at least comparable to those of Tengiz. Azerbaijan still has the problem of how to get the oil out. The matter of oil flow was quite crucial to the Caucasus conflict. At that moment, there were all sorts of agreement for the northern route for the oil to flow, through Russia. But if the Chechen war continued, or expanded, the international oil consortium would press for the route through Turkey.
A fierce diplomatic struggle ensued from 1993 about a new pipeline route from Baku. Moscow wanted it to be routed north through Chechnya, going to a Russian port on the Black sea- Novossibirsk. New York and London said no. To re-enforce their position, the intelligence networks of the Anglo-American financier elite, went into action. In September 1994, the “deal of the century” was signed between a consortium of Western oil companies, led by BP, and the Azerbaijan government. The next step was now to get this oil to market. The CIA, British Intelligence MI6, and the Mossad caused a pretext for a war between Russia and the Chechen independence fighters. Chechnya was imbued with a need to gain independence from Russia. Russia said no. A war broke out. Russia invaded Grozny in December 1994 and was promptly defeated. With the defeat of Russia in the first Chechen war, in January 1995, this northern pipeline route was now as good as dead.
A short while later, construction began on the BTC pipeline. Completed in early 2005, the first oil began to flow, and tankers began loading up this oil in October 2005 – a million barrels per day.
This whole episode shook the Russian leadership to its core. The nationalist faction in Moscow told Yeltsin that the state of affairs is not good for Russia, and Russia’s future survival is at stake, if they remain quiet. Something had to be done.
The BTC Pipeline
This 1,762 km long pipeline cost $3.6bln, making it one of the most expensive oil projects ever. The Baku-Ceyhan pipeline was originally proclaimed by BP and its consortium, as the Project of the Century. Zbigniew Brzezinski(ZB) was a consultant to BP, and he was the one who negotiated the deal with the then Azeri President Haider Aliyev.
ZB also sits on the board of an impressive, if little-known US-Azerbaijan Chamber Of Commerce (USAAC). The chairman of USAAC in Washington is Tim Cejka, President of ExxonMobil Exploration. Other USAAC board members include Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Brent Scowcroft, and Dick Cheney. A more high-powered Washington team of geo-political fixers would be hard to imagine. This group of prominent individuals would not give a minute of their time unless an area was of utmost geopolitical strategic importance to the US or its supreme financial overlord, David Rockefeller
Ceyhan is conveniently near the US airbase at Incirlik. As the political makeup of the Central Asian region is complex, especially since the collapse of the Soviet Union opened up a scramble in the oil-rich region of the Caspian from the outside, above all from the US, it is important to bear in mind the major power blocs which have emerged.
They are two. On one side is an alliance of US-Turkey-Azerbaijaan-Georgia, that small country that sits directly on the pipeline route. Opposed to it in terms of where the pipeline route carrying Caspian oil should go is Russia, which until 1990 held control over the entire Caspian outside the Iran littoral. Today, Russia has cultivated an uneasy but definite alliance with Iran and Armenia, in opposition to the US-led group. This two-camp is essential to understand developments in the region since 1991. The Pentagon already de facto runs Georgia. Now Washington wants to have direct bases in Azerbaijan in close proximity to Russia as well as to Iran. In all this maneuvering from the side of the US, the strategic issue of geopolitical control over Eurasia looms large. The current US strategy targets many Eurasian former Soviet republics which have no known oil or gas reserves. What they do have is strategic, military or geopolitical significance for the US policy of dominating Eurasia.
Target China
The policy has China as its geopolitical, economic and military fulcrum. A look at the Eurasian map and at the target countries for various US-sponsored Color revolutions makes this clear. To the east of the Caspian Sea, the US in one degree or another today controls Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan and Kazakstan. These serve as a potential US-controlled barrier or buffer zone between China and Russian, Caspian and Iranian energy sources. Washington is out to deny China easy land access to either Russia, the Middle East or to the oil and gas fields of the Caspian region.
The one power in Eurasia that has the potential to create a strategic combination which could checkmate US global domination is China. However, China has an Achilles Heel, which the US understands all too well – oil. In November 1993, China became a net importer of oil. Today China is the second-largest importer behind the US. China’s energy demand is growing at the rate of more than 30% per annum. China is feverishly been trying to secure long-term oil and gas supplies, especially since the Iraq war made clear to China that the US was out to control and militarise most of the world’s oil and gas sources.
A close look at the map of Eurasia begins to suggest what is so vital here for China, and therefore for America’s future domination of Eurasia. The goal is not only strategic encirclement of Russia through a series of NATO bases from Camp Bondsteel in Kosova to Poland, to Georgia, and Ukraine, which would enable NATO to control energy ties between Russia and the EU.
Washington policy now encompasses a series of soft coup projects which would strategically cut China off from access to the vital energy resources of the Caspian, including Kazakstan. The earlier Asian Great Silk Route trade routes went through Tashkent in Uzbekistan and Almaty in Kazakstan for geographically obvious reasons, in a region surrounded by major mountain ranges. Geopolitical control of Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Kazakhstan would enable control of any potential pipeline routes between China and Central Asia just as the encirclement of Russia controls pipeline and other ties between it and Western Europe, China, India and the Mideast.
In conclusion, we find an ongoing policy by America to contain oil-rich Iran and Russia, and to be in a position to control the supply of oil going from these two nations to America’s economic rivals – Europe and China. In the next 3 articles, we will discuss how Iran fits into this strategy.
