Geopolitics Of Pipes.

As was announced earlier, Power of Siberia was switched on today. 

And, without being sappy sentimental, it is, indeed, a historic moment since solidifies Russian-Chinese alliance with the blood of modern geopolitics--energy. Initially, Power of Siberia will pump modest volumes of natural gas but they will grow each month. China will need more, much more. Even English language propaganda outlets such as Associated Press had to note a true meaning of this pipeline. 

BEIJING (AP) — China and Russia launched on Monday a gas pipeline that is more than 6,000 kilometers (3,750 miles) long, an outcome of their long-planned energy partnership. As its relationships with Europe and the United States have grown more volatile, Russia is looking to bring its vast natural gas resources to the east. China is the world’s largest energy consumer and needs new supply sources to meet domestic demand. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated the pipeline — dubbed the “Power of Siberia” — through a joint video conference. “This step takes Russia-China energy cooperation to a whole new level and brings us closer to achieving the goal set together with Chinese President Xi Jinping of extending bilateral trade turnover to $200 billion in 2024,” Putin said. The pipeline bolsters the nations’ ties while China is embroiled in a trade dispute with the U.S. It stems from a $400 billion deal signed in 2014 by Russian state energy giant Gazprom, which agreed to deliver 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to China National Petroleum Corp for the next 30 years. Gazprom built the Russian side of the pipeline, which runs from new Siberian gas fields to the Chinese border.

Remarkable in this commitment to get to $200 billion volume of trade, which now seems a totally achievable goal by 2024. It also makes it clear that with Power of Siberia operational and more similar projects in the pipeline (ahem), Russia's position vis-a-vis Europe re: gas supplies improves dramatically. I am sure Kiev is celebrating this event joyfully (/sarc). Nothing personal, just business, which also makes Russia's shift to Asia obvious. There will be a lot of back-and-forth on this issue in coming days, but, hopefully, there will be enough cool heads who will look into the issue of power balance WITHIN Russian-Chinese geopolitical arrangement, to finally dispel all this contrived BS about "junior-senior partner" dichotomy and will concentrate on actual tangibles which drive Russian-Chinese relations and, with that, world's power balance. Who would have thought 15 years ago that the world will move the way Russia and China move.  

It Was Expected And Predicted.

After President Putin and China's Leader Xi Jingping concluded their first meeting in Moscow today with press-conference, one of the statements by Vladimir Putin certainly stood out (deliberately in Russian): 

"Россия и Китай намерены развивать практику расчетов в национальных валютах", — сообщил президент. По его словам, заключено межправсоглашение, нацеленное на дальнейшее расширение использования рублей и юаней в двусторонней торговле, а также на обеспечение бесперебойности банковского обслуживание сделок в условиях нестабильности на глобальных рынках. 

In other (English) words:

"Russia and China intend to develop the practice of settlements in national currencies,” Putin told journalists at the news conference following the talks. He added that the states have signed intergovernmental agreements on expanding the use of the yuan and the ruble in bilateral financial operations. 

It is, by now, almost anti-climactic--the way genuine multi-polarity unfolds--with China and Russia claiming, step-by-step, independence from Western (primarily American) institutions in every single field--from economy to "security". It is especially contrasting with what Daniel Larison described as Trump's Venezuela Hallucination:

Trump was eager to boast about Moscow’s withdrawal of its troops from Venezuela, but it turned out that he or someone else in the administration just made it up....Trump’s Venezuela policy is a shambles, and Russia previously brushed off his ultimatum to remove their forces from the country. It isn’t surprising that he would try to spin any development in his favor, but in this case it seems that he just invented something out of thin air so that his Venezuela policy wouldn’t look quite so feckless. He has no genuine successes that he can talk about, so he has to have pretend victories instead. The original tweet is still up:

It is, indeed, embarrassing, but in the same time--how is that different from Obama's "Russian economy left in tatters"--a hallucination and imbecility applauded by a bunch of Democratic ignoramuses with the aid of foreign policy "experts" of GOP such as late terrorism supporter McCain or his buddy in delusion Lindsey Graham. No difference whatsoever--it is still same ol' myopia (myopia? how about being retarded, literally) of which I write for years now. 

But at least give Associated Press a credit for allowing this to be made public:

Putin and Xi were meeting in Moscow as world leaders gathered on the south coast of England to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Putin, who attended 70th anniversary commemorations in France five years ago, has not been invited. Russia was not involved in D-Day but the Soviet effort was crucial in defeating the Nazis on the Eastern Front.

Obviously, Eastern Front in general and Operation Bagration in particular were the key for success of Allied Breakout from Normandy, but even brief reminder is good enough for now. It takes nothing from heroism, dedication and sacrifice of Allies: Americans, Britons, Canadians, Poles and others who stormed Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten. But on the 75th Anniversary of D-Day it comes with a sense of dark irony how non-stop Cold War by the combined West against USSR/Russia and now China already resulted in a dramatic decline of the combined West and inevitably leads to a serious clash of (Western)European and American interests. Why? Because there is only so much is available to go around and, as I stated huge number of times, no currency worth anything unless it rests on the real military (and by implication, economic) capability. I reiterate it--REAL. This very Daniel Larison, on Trump's example, conveys how American political class played a key role in America's worst nightmare coming to reality, with China and Russia not willing to play by American rules and how it, in the words of Pink Floyd, missed the starting gun. 

This episode isn’t that important by itself, but it shows how easily Trump can be convinced of the reality of things that haven’t happened and how readily he will accept any story, no matter how unfounded it may be, if it flatters him and bolsters his agenda. That makes him unusually easy to manipulate and provoke, and it makes him an exceptionally easy mark for misinformation. That puts the president’s decision-making completely at the mercy of the advisers that control what he sees and hears.  

Substitute "Trump" with "American elites" and it will describe really well the overall state of the affairs in the shining city upon a hill.  

UPDATE from 06/06/19: As I stated not for once, United States will exit START (strategic arms limitations) treaty and Russia was preparing for that. Here is Putin today:

САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГ, 6 июня. /ТАСС/. Новейшее гиперзвуковое оружие России будет способно защитить страну даже в случае прекращения действия Договора о сокращении стратегических наступательных вооружений (СНВ-3)  

Translation: Russia's newest hyper-sonic weapons will be able to protect Russia even in case of START-III ceasing to exist. 

Putin added (in Russian), very ominously, that if nobody wants START's extension, well, Russia is not going to insist. What will be demonstrated next? I can only speculate but REAL, fully integrated echeloned anti-missile system covering all of Russia is being constructed as I type this. We are yet to learn about actual capabilities of S-500 which surpass by far those of S-400 (imagine that). Plus, in another little news-piece, as Natsionalnaya Oborona reports (in Russian), Poliment-Redut, which is an anti-air and missile system on Russia's latest frigates of pr. 22350 (and reportedly will be installed on two remaining nuclear cruisers), will receive long-range (400 kilometers) missile based on 40H6 for S-400. So, make your own conclusions.