Russia & Central Asia

Russia’s comeuppance
Gulf's woes bode ill for the oil and gas we need
Oiligarchy: A game with a message
The slow death of Gaza
What the pirates say

With U.S. and EU participation, a vital meeting in the Hungarian capital next January will seal commitments for the long-contemplated Turkey-Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria (Nabucco) gas pipeline. Opposition from Russia’s mighty Gazprom, uncertainty surrounding relations with Iran, and the roiling world economic turmoil cast doubt on the project’s future.

The talk you are about to hear is the result of a lengthy process on my part. My specialty is in thinking about and, unfortunately, predicting collapse. My method is based on comparison: I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and, since I am also familiar with the details of the situation in the United States, I can make comparisons between these two failed superpowers.

I was born and grew up in Russia, and I traveled back to Russia repeatedly between the late 80s and mid-90s. This allowed me to gain a solid understanding of the dynamics of the collapse process as it unfolded there.

IEA predicts oil price to rebound to $100
Highlights of the IEA report
Peak gas output could come 'earlier than we think': Shell's Mills
$10 per barrel: in Russia, it's actually arrived
Robert Rapier has a warning you should hear

How U.S. policy made oil go up. Then down
Chevron project offers glimpse of future: more work, less oil
Exxon's production falls as profits soar
Russia, China sign landmark oil pipeline deal

Putin suggests Russia, China ditch dollar in trade deals
Russia's oil boom: Miracle or mirage?
China sets price for cooperation on climate change

Boomtown Dubai feels effects of a global crisis
The party's over for Iceland
Bolivia: defeat of the right
Behind the bluster, Russia Is collapsing

With his book "Reinventing Collapse", Dmitry Orlov reports to us from a collapse that he has actually experienced with the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia's past is our future and Orlov's book is a time machine to there.

Kazakh oil: a war of nerves
Global warming threatens Asia-Pacific security, warns Australian PM
Fresh violence in Bolivia stokes civil war fears
Poison Fire interview (film about Nigerian oil)
Monbiot: protectionism makes you rich

Russia: Folly of the progressive fairytale
How the West is losing the energy cold war
Shut up, Borat - the tinderbox of Kazakhstan oil