What would happen to the world economy?
Quite simply the economic consequences of such a raid would be cataclysmic.
It isn’t just that Iran is the world’s second largest oil producer, with the third largest global reserves of oil and the second largest of natural gas. The truly significant part is where Iran actually is. Even assuming [...]

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At the height of the Cold War, the West feared the Soviet military. Now, it fears Russian energy companies, and the 800-pound gorilla of them all is Gazprom, Russia’s natural gas monopoly, currently the world’s third-largest company by capitalization.
Having absorbed capitalism with a rapacity that would make Lenin blush, Gazprom does not intend to rest [...]

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The word “petrostate” typically conjures up images of Middle Eastern sheiks with fantastically wealthy lifestyles ruling politically repressive, oil-rich desert regions. Few realize that Russia actually leads the world in the production and export of natural gas and trails only Saudi Arabia in the production and export of oil. Even fewer know that Russia has [...]

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Since the mid-1990s, leaders of the Caspian Sea littoral states — Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran — have repeatedly said that the sea should never become a point of contention between them or a reason for conflict in the international community.
But as energy prices skyrocket, the Caspian Sea Basin — home to some [...]

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The BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are emerging as the new powers destined to inherit world economic leadership by the middle of the 21st century.
With China and India combined representing more than one-third of the world’s population (2.4 billion) and undisputed leaders in converting raw materials into finished goods, these Asian giants are headed [...]

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ON a frigid evening in February, the hottest place to be here was the Kremlin Palace theater. The draw inside the towering hall wasn’t Tina Turner or Deep Purple — rock icons well past their prime — but Gazprom, Russia’s most powerful corporate leviathan, which was celebrating its 15th anniversary.
Gazprom certainly had reason to party: [...]

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