THE EMERGING RUSSIAN GIANT, Part 1
Moscow plays its cards strategically
By F William Engdahl

On October 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to the German city of Dresden for a

summit on energy issues with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, including proposed plans

to more than double German import of Russian natural gas.

Putin told the German chancellor that Russia would "possibly" redirect some of the future

natural gas from its giant Shtokman field in the Barents Sea. The US$20 billion project is

due to come online 2010. Putin's Dresden talks followed an earlier summit in



Paris in late September with Putin and French President Jacques Chirac and Merkel.

A week after his Dresden talks, the Indonesian Navy chief of staff announced a remarkable

shift away from that country's traditional purchases of North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO) military equipment. Indonesia will buy 12 modern Kilo-Class and Lada-Class Russian

submarines. Indonesia cited advantages of cost and reliability over French or German

equivalents.

These developments underscore the re-emerging of Russia as a major global power. The new

Russia is gaining in influence through a series of strategic moves revolving around its

geopolitical assets in energy - most notably its oil and natural gas. It's doing so by

shrewdly taking advantage of the strategic follies and major political blunders of

Washington. The new Russia also realizes that if it does not act decisively, it soon will

be encircled and trumped by a military rival, the US. The battle, largely unspoken, is the

highest stakes battle in world politics today. Iran and Syria are seen by Washington

strategists as mere steps to this great Russian End Game.



Continued at
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HJ25Ag01.html