Russia may face wars over energy: Kremlin

[Turborama]

Source: Reuters

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia may face wars on its borders in the near future over control of energy resources, a Kremlin document on security policy said Wednesday. The paper did not name potential adversaries, but Russia, the world's biggest energy producer, shares a border of more than 3,600 km (2,250 miles) with resource-hungry China and a small sea border with the United States.

"In a competition for resources, problems that involve the use of military force cannot be excluded that would destroy the balance of forces close to the borders of the Russian Federation and her allies," said the document, which maps out Russia's security strategy until 2020.

"The attention of international politics in the long-term perspective will be concentrated on the acquisition of energy resources," the paper said.

It said regions where such a competition for resources could arise included the Middle East, the Barents Sea, the Arctic, the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. Russia also sees increased competition for food, fresh water and land.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/gc07/idUKTRE54C4BY20090513

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Uh-oh

[RandomThoughts]

1. Another good reason to get the wind/solar thing up and running.

No reason to want to be part of that mess.

[Turborama]

2. Indeed

Nice of them to let us know in advance, too.

[amandabeech]

3. Well, Russia's recent actions, as outlined in the article, were a big clue.

I take issue with the article's claim that the recent Russia-Georgia dust-up was not about energy.

Apparently, the authors were completely unaware that Georgia is a main transit way for Caspian oil and gas on its way to Georgian ports on the Black Sea and on its way to the Turkish port of Ceyhan via the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

Ethnic tensions, idiotic Georgian leadership and Russian imperial ambitions of course played a part.

However, this document makes it clear that the Russians are preoccupied with attaining their former stature through control of liquid energy and with keeping their bogeyman of "disorder" at bay.

[Doctor_J]

4. I read about this in Red Storm Rising

It comes out OK

;-)

[ohio2007]

5. They will march through Georgia like Sherman in order to nationalize those pipelines built

by foreign investors