US IS LOSING ITS ECONOMIC WAR AGAINST RUSSIA
Those who genuinely believe that the US and the West have unleashed a full scale economic war against Russia because of its position on Ukraine have no idea how much mistaken they are. In fact, it was planned much earlier, precisely a year ago, when a closed meeting between senior authorities of the US and Saudi Arabia was held. This meeting was so secret that even Prince Bandar, the Saudi intelligence services chief and the head National Security Council at the time wasn’t allowed in.
This
can partially explain why the key Western political leaders, including
German’s Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande,
were not present at the opening ceremony of the Winter Sochi Olympics.
Apparently, those people still have some conscience, since they knew
what conspiracy was going to be launched against Moscow by the West.
So the White House representatives proposed the Saudi authorities to drop the oil prices drastically, to the level of 50 dollars a barrel,
which would have supposedly undermined Iran’s influence and forced it
into making serious concessions on its nuclear program, and that was
just what Riyadh wanted. “Russian aspect” was not explicitly stressed,
although once the crisis in Ukraine began, President Obama did mention
it during his visit to the kingdom. The Saudis have shown rigidity,
since the decline in oil prices must have affected the social programs
of the KSA. In these circumstances, Washington had to blackmail Saudi
Arabia since it had accumulated enough evidence against most members of
the Saudi royal family, including facts on gross violations of human
rights, immoral behavior, which could have potentially led to the
prosecution of Al Saud dynasty. Additionally, the United States have
provided their Saudi friends with intelligence reports on the presence
of thousands of Hezbollah supporters in the Shiite-populated Eastern
Province of the Kingdom, which could start armed struggle against the
Wahhabi regime at any given moment. And it worked miraculously well,
although the starting date of this operation was yet to be determined.
Washington
had to wait for the Ukrainian crisis to begin in order to drop oil
prices in time with the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions.
Therefore, in January 2014 the US started taking numerous efforts to
destabilize the situation in Ukraine, that ended up with a brute force
scenario that was facilitated by local oligarchs. One must admit that
the overthrow of Victor Yanukovych and the coup d’etat that took place
in Kiev went according to Washington’s plan, but few expected that
Moscow will take a tough stance on Crimea, and that the south-eastern
Ukraine will be transformed in a center of tough resistance to Kiev,
which took power in the country illegally due to both open and hidden
support of the West.
Under
these conditions Riyadh suspected that the White House could be playing a
double game with Iran, while using oil prices against Russia and, at
the same time, to overthrow the anti-American regime in Venezuela – the
third largest oil exporter. After all, Washington has manged to extend
its agreement on the Iranian nuclear program with Tehran, while
mitigating economic sanctions. At this point Al Saud family members
suspected that they became mere pawns in somebody else’s game.
The fall
in oil prices was to begin in June, but at that time the problem of ISIL
has emerged as a serious challenge for the regional security.
Therefore, both the United States and the KSA had to take urgent
measures to prevent the collapse of the Middle East. And Riyadh decided
to postpone the crisis due to the fact that it needed all the resources
it could get to prevent the Islamic State from expanding its operational
area. At that point, Washington could not demand that Riyadh sacrificed
it own political survival for the sake of destruction of the Russian
economy, along with weakening Iran and overthrowing the legitimate
government of Venezuela.
But in
August, when the Islamic State was stabilized, the White House officials
started to apply pressure on Saudi Arabia yet again, which resulted in
the sharp decline in oil prices. The dirty game began when the Saudis
started selling oil at a price lower than the market’s, which resulted
in a daily price collapse. At the same time Washington announced its
readiness to flood the markets with its shale oil, although these claims
were false, since the actual shale reserves of the US are half as big
as it was announced. Riyadh sang in tune with the US, by claiming that
the increase in oil exports, has nothing to do with Russia.
It
must be admitted that the Russian economic experts and financial
departments have panicked for a brief while. At some point it seemed
that the ruble was about to crumble as the oil prices dropped lower and
lower. But then the situation changed. The United Kingdom, that was
playing a part in the conspiracy Russia announced that the cost of oil
production in the North Sea didn’t allow them to get more than 2 dollars
of profit per barrel sold. British Petroleum has sounded the alarm by
announcing that it was on the verge of stopping oil production. And
there’s still Norway, which is also extracting oil in the North Sea.
European allies of the US have lost all desire to pay for the political
ambitions of Washington, that was eager to go after Moscow. But what’s
even more important – the Saudi kingdom started to crumble. An wave of
terrorist attacks spread across the Eastern Province, while the internal Shia–Sunni conflict
became more tense. The local ruling elite, that had lost their
revenues, have started to become increasingly frustrated with the
actions of Al Saud family. A drastic drop in social security funding has
caused massive unrest among the common people of the KSA. Against this
background that ISIL has announced that it is expanding it operational
area in Saudi Arabia. But the last drop that got on Riyadh’s nerves was
the US secret plans to sign an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program
in February-March 2015. And then one could kiss sanctions against Iran
good-bye. What this basically means is that Saudi Arabia will lost its
position of Washington’s key partner in the Middle East.
It was about time for Saudi Arabia to “give a reply”to the White House as they stopped dropping oil prices. The Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali
al-Naimi has issued a statement on December 19, in which he stated that
the cooperation within OPEC will be restored. According to Ali
al-Naimi, oil prices will go up since oil the is still the primary
source of energy for decades to come, so the black gold market must be
reanimated. However, Washington was quick to step in and force Saudi
Arabia into doing what it was told to do. That is why Ali al-Naimi had
to drastically change his position in the matter of days, on December 23
he stated that: “It is not in the interest of OPEC producers to cut
their production, whatever the price is. Whether it goes down to
$20, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant, the world might not see the oil
price back at $100 a barrel again.” The
Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources believes that
the budgets of the Gulf countries are able to withstand a long period
of declining prices. First, according to the Minister, the offshore
projects in Brazil, West Africa and the Arctic are to cut their
production since the price is going to make them unprofitable. What is
certain however is that high-efficiency producers will rule the market
in the future,’ concluded Ali al-Naimi. What can be added to this
statement since this statement is an official recognition of unfriendly
Saudi actions against Russia.
But
Washington has lost all the same. The pillars of Russia’s economy
haven’t crumbled, therefore Barack Obama is left with nothing better to
do than watch the strengthening ruble and
the gradual economic stabilization in Russia. For sure, Moscow and
Russian people have both paid the price for Russia’s dependence on oil
and gas sales . But at this point no Russian politician will have no
illusions about the nature of US actions and the actions of its European
and Saudi allies. It is also clear that it’s imperative to build a
different economy, that will be less dependent on the West. As for Saudi
Arabia it must draw one conclusion: there’s no need to pay for the
other countries’ games against Russia, especially when the King and the
Crown Prince are on their last legs, while ISIL militants are planning
the invasion of Saudi Arabia. As of now, Saudi Arabia is following the
path that can only lead to the consequent collapse
of the ruling royal regime. America is ready to sacrifice its ally only
to try to hurt Russian economy just a little bit more.
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A massive 5,000 year old underground city has been discovered in Turkey by the country’s Housing Development Administration (TOKI), according to reports Sunday.
The ancient city was found in the region of Cappadocia, province of Nevsehir, when some 1,500 buildings were demolished by the TOKI to start a new urban project.
“We stopped the construction we were planning to do on these areas when an underground city was discovered,” said TOKI director Mehmet Ergün Turan.
The approximately 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) long underground city consists of tunnels, churches and galleries, according to the archaeologic exploration team.
The discovery has been regarded as the biggest archeological finding of 2014.
Ergün said that while the TOKI had already spent US$38.6 million (90 million Turkish liras) on the new urban project, this does not mean that the investment is lost as the discovery may be the largest underground city in the world.
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“The underground city [was found] in the 45 hectares of the total 75 hectare area that is within the [urban] transformation project,” said the Mayor of Nevsehir, Hasan Ünver. “We applied to the [Cultural and Natural Heritage] Preservation Board and the area was officially registered.”
The province of Nevsehir was already famous for its subterranean cities, including the one at Derinkuyu which is eleven levels deep.
“The other underground cities in Nevsehir’s various districts do not even amount to the “kitchen of this new underground city,” added Ünver.
ust who first built the underground structures and when remains something of a mystery. Archaeologists suspect the Phrygians, Persians or 15th century B.C. Anatolian Hittites may be responsible, but since the caves are carved from natural rock, it is difficult to trace their construction to a specific date. The first written evidence of the mysterious cities is not found until the 5th century B.C. in the Greek writer Xenophon’s “Anabasis,” which states that the region’s houses consisted of “underground structures with an aperture like the mouth of a well by which to enter, but they were broad and spacious below.”
While researchers still know very little about Nevşehir’s newest subterranean city, they have begun to speculate on how it was used. Özcan Çakır, a professor in the Geophysics Engineering department at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University near Gallipoli, is one of the experts involved in excavating the new find. He told the Hurriyet Daily News that the complex might have functioned as a space for storing and transporting food and produce. “We believe that people who were engaged in agriculture were using the tunnels to carry agricultural products to the city,” he said. “We also estimate that one of the tunnels passes under Nevşehir and reaches a faraway water source.” A consistent underground climate of around 55 degrees Fahrenheit may have made the cave city an appealing location for preserving food. Even today, Turks in Cappadocia often use ancient underground buildings as storage for fruit and vegetables.
The new city is not the first underground settlement to be discovered by accident in Turkey. The famed subterranean complex at Derinkuyu was only unearthed in 1963, after a man making renovations to his home found a stone passageway behind one of his walls. A similar event took place in August of this year, when an Anatolian man stumbled upon a massive subterranean chamber while cleaning the floors of his house.
SOURCE : IBTIMES & HISTORY