'Putin's Revenge': Russia And China Try To End The Dominance Of The Dollar

[Camilo]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/putins-revenge-russia-china-try-131700912.html

REUTERS/How Hwee Yong Russia's President Vladimir Putin with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a signing ceremony at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Sunday.

Russia and China just agreed to a second major gas deal, worth slightly less than the $400 billion agreement reached earlier this year, according to Bloomberg.

The details of the deal mean Russia will supply China with another 30 billion cubic metres of gas every year for the next three decades through the Altai pipeline, a proposed pipe transporting the gas from western Siberia to China.

Earlier in the fall, Keun-Wook Paik at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies said this kind of deal would be "Putin’s revenge," according to the Financial Times.

Many analysts see the move as evidence that Moscow is pivoting away from reliance on European customers and toward East Asia, where relatively rapid economic growth should prop up demand.

It's also a political move, as relations with the rest of Europe have become increasingly cold after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the tit-for-tat sanctions between the European Union, United States, and Russia.

The value of the Russian rouble has collapsed recently as the price of oil has declined. Russia's economy is dependent on oil, so the currency fluctuates with the oil price. The price declines in turn threaten Russia's ability to meet its budget obligations and pay debt. In sum, the country faces an economic crisis if it can't find new demand for oil and currency .

But the rouble is rallying against the dollar today. Here's the US currency dropping by nearly 3% against the rouble after the central bank announced it would stop trying to defend the currency's collapse.

The China deal helps both Russia and China lessen their economic dependence on the West. It also helps Russia get around the economic sanctions imposed by the West because of the Ukraine situation. The Moscow Times notes:

Curtailing the dollar's influence fits well with China's ambitions to increase the influence of the yuan and eventually turn it into a global reserve currency. With 32 percent of its $4 trillion foreign exchange reserves invested in US government debt, China wants to curb investment risks in dollar.

The quest to limit the dollar's dominance became more urgent for Moscow this year when US and European governments imposed sanctions on Russia over its support for separatist rebels in Ukraine.

[Snookie]

Yeah, right - after Russia invaded Ukraine.😂 Try after the State Department i.e. Victoria Nuland orchestrated a coup there.

They sure like to rewrite history don't they?

[Pilutaq]

putin facts

When the crisis in Ukraine first escalated in February, many German experts on Russia were caught off guard. Almost none of them had foreseen that the revolution in Kiev would be followed by the events in Crimea. Not least because many journalists and scientists had misjudged Vladimir Putin.

While much has been said about Russia's president since then, Vladimir Putin continues to surprise audiences worldwide. These 15 facts will make you better understand the Russian leader.

1. Vladimir Putin's mother survived the Siege of Leningrad

From 1941 to 1944, German and Finnish troops systematically cut off all supplies to the Russia's Leningrad, aiming to starve the metropolis' inhabitants. The episode is considered to be one of the most gruesome war crimes committed by the Wehrmacht on Russian soil. Putin's mother, Maria Ivanovna, survived the siege. One million people died, amongst them also an older brother of the yet unborn Vladimir.

2. He was brought up without high-running emotions

In a documentary by German public broadcaster ARD called “Ich, Putin,” the Russian leader told journalist Huber Seipelt:

I cannot claim that we were a very emotional family. That we talked to each other much. Everyone somehow dwelled in themselves. We did on the other hand get along quite well. My parents stayed together all those years, until the end of their lives. Yet still I didn't know of anything emotional, of heroic deeds, difficulties or tragedies. They didn't want to talk about that.
3. Putin's father was a “real proletarian”

Putin's childhood friend Sergej Rodulgin said Putin's father loved his son, but always found some fault in him. “He was afraid to seem too indulgent,” Rodulgin told Seipelt.

4. He started judo to “keep his place in the pack”

The rather slight teenager Vladimir Putin realized that the other male teenagers started growing faster during puberty. That's why, Putin claimed, he started learning judo. He wanted to assert himself.

5. He told his ex-wife only shortly before their marriage that he worked for the intelligence agency

“If someone absolutely has to talk about working for the intelligence agency, he has no place there,” Putin told Seipelt.

6. Putin believes that the West is afraid of Russia

The beginning of "Ich, Putin" features a dialogue that can appear bizarre in light of events of the past months.

“Where does this negative attitude of the West towards you come from?"
– "From the anxiety."
– "Anxiety due to you?"
– "Due to Russia. With our scale, our atomic weapons, and our possibilities in other different fields. But that is old thinking.”
7. Putin speaks German perfectly

He proved this, for example, during a speech in 2001 before the Bundestag. He had spent almost five years as a KGB agent in Dresden. When the government of the GDR began to crumble in 1990, Putin was sent back to Moscow.

8. He believes the end of the USSR was the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.” But he isn't nostalgic of Soviet times

It is true that Putin has an affinity for the symbols of power from the Soviet Union: He reintroduced the Soviet anthem with new lyrics, for example.

But almost nothing is left of the social policy achievements of the Soviet Era. Take the miserable state of Russia's health care system, as well as the financial safety net. At the end of 2011, 16 percent of Russians lived below the already miserable poverty line of $192 a month. On the other hand, rich Russians are doing comparatively well: they only paid 13 percent income tax since the beginning of the 21st century.

9. Putin likes to display himself as an ice hockey player

Despite practicing for hours at a time on an ice rink outside of town, Putin doesn't play very well. But Ice hockey is a national sport in Russia, and it works just as well as soccer in Germany to gain sympathy points.

10. In spite of all the domestic issues, Putin has the reputation of having put Russia “back on its feet”

This has a lot to do with the fact that Russia underwent a severe crisis during the chaotic 90s, which not only shocked the economy, but also the bureaucracy, cultural life, social cohesion and the concept of statehood.

When Putin took power in 2000, he reformed the country and rebuilt it after autocratic principles. Russia reaped a lot of revenues in the following years, especially from the export of natural resources.

Yet it is also true that economic growth had slowed down distinctly before the crisis in Crimea. What Russia needs are investments. But these currently aren't foreseeable due to the sanctions in place.

11. Even on his country estate he keeps an “Entourage like P. Diddy”

At least that's what the photographer of the famous Putin portrait Platon claims.

12. Putin likes the Beatles

Platon also said Putin's favorite Beatle is Paul. And his favorite song is probably the most melancholic one of the “Fab Four”: “Yesterday.”

13. Putin was head of the leadership party “United Russia” for four years, without being a member

Formally speaking he was asked to be president, which again speaks volumes about his influence in the country.

source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/05/putin-facts_n_6084128.html?cps=gravity

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Good or bad, right or wrong, Putin is a faaaarrrr more fascinating figure than obama to my mind. Not many leaders have a mystique about them anymore, putin remains fairly enigmatic