Tick-Tock it is Putin’s Clock – and the World Awaits

Putin is in a world of hurt inside his homeland. The economy is in recession (near depression) and the price of oil is not going to rise for at least three years. Worse yet, America will start exporting natural gas soon. We have plenty of natural gas that can be liquefied and shipped abroad. We could put Russia out of business.

Here is a link on a Bloomberg story about terminals being built on the Gulf Coast to ship liquefied natural gas (LNG): http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-11-06/u-dot-s-dot-natural-gas-exports-will-fire-up-in-2015. We should be building more of these LNG shipping ports.

With the low cost of natural gas in America, more than half the rigs have stopped producing because of the economics. With foreign buyers, many of those rigs could come back online and pose a serious threat to Russia’s natural gas sales. Russia’s economy is already suffering due to low energy prices, competition from America could cause it to crater. And, we should make it crater. Couple low energy prices, more competition and the oligarchs having their foreign bank accounts frozen and I bet good old Vladimir is having a tough time with his oligarch buddies. Surprisingly though, his popularity among the Russian people has not tumbled. In fact, due to his foreign military interventions in Crimea/Ukraine, Putin is riding high. The Russians are clamoring to get their old empire back and Putin is looking like the guy to do it. How long will the Russians suffer economic depression while cheering Putin into battle?

Now comes Russia’s involvement in Syria. I have previously expressed the belief that Putin is attempting to wrestle control of the entire Middle East region. Control that region and Putin believes that he can control the price of oil and therefore improve the Russian economy. Putin did not think he would wind up on the wrong end of an ISIS airline bombing. But here he is. And what will he do now? The clock is counting down to Putin’s response to the ISIS bombing.

It is painfully obvious that the Egyptians do not want to call the airline bombing a terrorist attack. Tourism is Egypt’s largest industry. They do not want to admit that terrorists infiltrated their airport and killed tourists. They are trying their best to find something else to call it. Maybe something exploded on the plane by accident – maybe it was lithium batteries. Maybe, but nobody is believing that at this point. Too many intelligence agencies (CIA, Mossad, MI5) have already stated: it was terrorism and it was ISIS.

Putin knows what happened on that plane and the stalling Egyptians are giving Putin the time he needs to plan and set in motion his strike back at ISIS. Putin has already told the Russian people that his government will do everything it can to protect the Russian people from terrorists. That means Putin will make ISIS the focus of his mission to prop up Syrian President al-Assad.  And his focus will be razor sharp. If you are a member of ISIs and living in Syria – you better run and hide. The Russians are coming to get you. Unlike the Americans, the Russians do not care if they have to kill some civilians along the way. They operate under the assumption that collateral damage is unavoidable. Also unavoidable is the mass killing of ISIS that is about to commence.

Tick-tock, it is Putin’s clock. He will tell the Egyptians when it is time to call a spade a spade. By that time, he will have his attack plans finalized and military assets in place. It will be just a matter of placing a phone call. Then all hell will break out in Syria. I just hope that there are enough diplomats in the world with enough foresight and savvy to figure out how to get the ensuing war under control. Otherwise, it could become, at the very least, a regional war. It could become a Sunni-Shia regional war that could spread beyond the Middle East. World powers could get entangled. Once world powers become entangled with no control over the little countries feuding among themselves, the table is set for big trouble.

This is a very scary moment in history. It reminds me of the BBC documentary “37 Days.” I recommend watching that documentary. It lays out the bumbled 37 days of diplomacy that ended with the start of World War I. Watch that documentary and you will realize how stupid little regional conflicts can get out of control.

Maybe the diplomats will find other ways to help Russia improve its economy (other than its planned Syrian war and Middle East takeover). If it will prevent WWIII then I am for it. However, if we do not get to that point, then I revert back to my position of putting Russia out of business. If we can get the Russian people to realize that Putin is not going to provide them with the basic necessities of life, maybe they will vote him out of office. Okay, I am a dreamer, but it is worth a chance.