An interesting side note to this is the damage that it is going to do to the Russian economy which really is a one-trick pony. What Russia is going to do about that is very uncertain given Putin's recent record.
You all make a very serious mistake in underestimating Putin and Russia.
Um....I don't see any underestimating in what I said.
Hitler's war ended at the Battle of Kirsk and the bulk of his armies were already destroyed when the Americans arrived.
Actually it was the Battle of Kursk and I don't see what it has to do with anything here.
Putin couldn't give a rats arse about selling oil and gas to the Europeans because he knows they are insolvent and cant pay for it anyway. More damage will occur to the European economies than to Russia.
They have been paying for it up to now, especially the Germans and they aren't exactly paupers at the moment. The Russian economy is in free fall and it needs money, now.
Meanwhile pipelines to the new economic order in China are being constructed at a furious pace. The Arabs have had a gutful of America's interference in the Middle East on behalf of Israel and are dumping cheap oil on the market to further destabilise the value of the US petro dollar which is only accepted as a measure of value at the moment by virtue of the American Military enforcing trade in oil only in US dollars.
China is going to face its own problems shortly as its economic boom time cools considerably and it has its own oil supply. Not perhaps sufficient to fuel their ever increasing needs but China would be very wary of putting itself in the power of Russia. The Chinese have very long memories and they would not have forgotten that Russia at one time was hinting that it would be prepared to use nuclear weapons on the Chinese.
The US dollar is hardly being destabilised. In fact it is rapidly increasing in value vis-a-vis the only other currency that could possibly be considered a world trading currency - the Euro. There is nothing to suggest that the US military is enforcing the use of the US$. It is the only currency in world wide circulation in such quantity that it can be used as a trading currency for the present.
Yes, a lot of the Middle East would rather see Israel disappear although not necessarily have it replaced by the Palestinians but they also want to be protected from their own insurrections and the best policy for that is don't pee off the US. Where does the Middle East go to for arms - the US.
Who is building the best fighter jet in world at the moment? err Russia? Suhkoi? Russia will not relinquish Sevastopol (deep water all winter port)and why should they. It is a legitimate part of the Russian sphere of influence and national interest. (remember the Crimean war fought in 1850s?)This will be a trigger for World War.
Relevance?
China is rising, America will fall unless radical political change occurs. Hope you all have been taking your Mandarin lessons!
Yes China is rising. Just how far it will rise will be very dependent on how it manages the next phase from industrial to service based economy. The initial suggestions is that it will have the same problems that affected Japan. It, however, may also have to face a disaffected populace who have been given a taste of the high life and now want a political say in the country.
That the US will fall unless it has radical political change is mere poppycock. I have beside me an article entitled, "Glowing Prospects - The Giant Awakens" which runs the premise that..., "Not so long ago the US was being written off as having lost its financial and strategic might. But now the economy is turning around just as other countries go into retreat. The consequences are significant..." The country has been written off before and it still hasn't happened.
And I still don't see that there will be any significant drop in the price of Avgas.