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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E. T. who wrote (219081)	1/16/2002 1:01:26 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 769670

Despite disputes over the route of the pipeline, we have basically been in the oil business with Russia for the last decade. The Caspian reserves may very well undermine the dominance of Arab oil. Iraq has been a long time protege of Moscow. That did not stop Moscow from supporting our position during the Gulf War, but it did cause them to take a stab at mediation, and to hold aloof from contributing directly to the coalition. The Russians were chagrined to see how easily Iraq was defeated, after it had benefited from Russian training and arms sales. Furthermore, they still look upon Iraq as a stabilizing force in respect of Iran and the potential Kurdistan. Anyway, interesting update......

To: E. T. who wrote (219081)	1/16/2002 3:36:42 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

Brilliant analysis... Excellent post. It gives a lot to think about. (And what if oil development around Sakhalin gets a kick-start with Japanese funding and a Japan-built bridge to Sakhalin from Hokkaido in return for a Rus/Japan peace treaty and the return of the Kurils? It is economically a win/win for both countries, and would also be a win for the rest of the oil consuming world.)

To: E. T. who wrote (219081)	1/16/2002 3:45:51 PM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Wow! According to that logic, we will have to go to war with Russia to prevent them from running a gasline through Poland into Europe! -- Russia, Poland Hail New Era in Once-Troubled Ties By Douglas Busvine WARSAW (Reuters) - Russia and Poland hailed on Wednesday a new opening in relations troubled by the collapse of Soviet communism over a decade ago and a bitter legacy of 20th-century conflict. President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), making the first visit by a Russian leader to Poland since 1993, gave his blessing to the European Union (news - web sites)'s push to enlarge eastward and said Moscow wanted to work constructively with NATO (news - web sites), which Poland joined in 1999. Both Putin and his host, President Aleksander Kwasniewski, praised a ``new quality'' in relations, which chilled after Poland shook off communism in 1989, embracing democracy and turning to the West. ``The difficult period of the 1990s is now behind us,'' Kwasniewski told a news conference. ``What I find particularly attractive is the chance to have an open discussion,'' replied Putin, on his first official trip to eastern Europe. ``There are no taboos.'' Putin's two-day visit was billed as an effort to build a personal rapport with Kwasniewski, a fluent Russian speaker and former communist, to revive economic ties and resolve a wrangle over piping Arctic gas via Poland to Western Europe. But it was much more low-key than President Bush (news - web sites)'s emotional visit last June, which featured an address urging an end to European divisions and further NATO expansion. Police held three demonstrators involved in a flag-burning protest outside Russia's consulate in Krakow against Moscow's military campaign against Chechen separatists, but day one of the visit passed off without incident in Warsaw. Both leaders' diplomatic skills were taxed by questioning over calls for compensation for surviving Poles deported to Siberia after the Nazi-Soviet partition of Poland in 1939. NO FINANCIAL COMPENSATION Putin ruled out financial compensation for Polish victims of Stalinist repression similar to the $1 billion paid out by Germany to nearly half a million Poles forced to work for the Nazis during World War Two. But he suggested Poles could seek ``rehabilitation'' under Russian law -- an option Kwasniewski said could be looked into. ``We do not want to close our eyes to the negative side of the Stalinist regime,'' Putin said. Putin laid flowers at the memorial to Poland's Home Army resistance, but steered clear of a more sensitive monument to the Warsaw uprising of 1944 which Soviet troops, camped across the Vistula river, are accused of failing to help. In one gesture toward history, Putin handed over documents on Poland's wartime leader in exile, General Wladyslaw Sikorski, who established relations with Moscow after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Sikorski died in a mysterious plane crash in Gibraltar in 1943. Ties with Moscow never recovered and Stalin installed a communist puppet regime in Warsaw after the war's end. Poland hopes to become a member of the EU in 2004, but ``we don't want to turn our back on our eastern neighbors,'' Kwasniewski said. Putin said Poland's EU ambitions would not adversely affect relations with Moscow. But he called for an early solution to the status of Russia's Kaliningrad enclave on the Baltic, which could find itself boxed in after the bloc admits new members. ``There are 1.3 million people living there and you can't just fence them in...We propose dealing with this problem now, before EU enlargement,'' Putin said. dailynews.yahoo.com