“The owl of Minerva flies at dusk”, the philosopher Hegel, wearing only a false moustache and flapping his arms, liked to whisper conspiratorily to terrified passers-by.
(No wonder his last words were: "Only one man had ever understood me, and he didn't understand me”. But I digress.)
Just so, I am having a very difficult time getting to the bottom of what's really going on with Russia and energy at the moment.
First, there is the whole TNK-BP saga unfurling in Moscow.
TNK-BP is a Russo-British joint venture oil giant currently in the throes of a major boardroom battle.
Some assert that the billionaire Russian shareholders want to buy out the British and sell the company off to Gazprom. At the same time, Russian officials have publicly stated that it would be a bad idea. What's behind all of this?
Then this morning, the Wall Street Journal carried a long and detailed essay about the Great Game between competing EU and Russian gas pipelines.
I am doing some research and digging through my old thesis notes to make something of all this, and hope to post something resembling an analysis very soon.
Although, if old Hegel was right, and the state of man's mind conforms precisely to the state of the world as he views it, then it might take me a little longer.
ANYONE GOT ANY IDEAS? PLEASE SHARE THEM HERE!!
