Has anyone wondered why round after round of sanctions, imposed by the US and Europe, against Russia, has done absolutely nothing to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin? Why "isolating" Russia has been nothing but other world powers beating their chests and blowing hot air?
Wonder no more.
Via RT:
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli have launched the construction of the first part of Gazprom’s Power of Siberia pipeline - which will deliver 4 trillion cubic meters of gas to China over 30 years.
“The new gas branch will significantly strengthen the economic cooperation with countries in the Asia-Pacific region and above all - our key partner China,” Putin said at the ceremony outside the city of Yakutsk - the capital of Russia's Republic of Yakutia on Monday.
This is a two pronged win for Russia, as is explained by ZeroHedge:
More importantly, as Zero Hedge reported last week, one awaits as the invoices become increasingly less denominated in USD, and more in CNY or RUB. Most importantly, and confirming the significance of Russia's pivot away from Europe...
[....]
To summarize all of the above: while Europe will continue to depend on Russia for its gas imports indefinitely, Russia will no longer depend on Europe for its experts.
Now everyone should be very clear why Putin has been reminding everyone that "Winter is coming," and tossing in the reminder that he holds a very large nuclear arsenal to boot, described as a "defiant" statement. Russia has been holding all the cards this whole time, it all comes down to energy and the teaming up of Russia and China with this very public launch of construction is just icing on the cake for Vladimir Putin.
