Contileezza - Natural gas, tear gas, drive by diplomacy SNAFU
Bulgaria woke up Tuesday with more expensive gas, after a series of hikes already. Lukoil Bulgaria upped prices by about 0.55%. In the end of last month, prices increased by 3%. On March 10, Lukoil introduced a 5% hike.
The 67% owned Czech Electricity company is also intending to put up electricity prices.Lukoil have expressed a desire to buy the Bulgarian nationalised gas company when it is privatised, meanwhile they have hiked prices by 5% from Lukoil Bulgaria overnight.
Not only did Sofians wake up to bigger gas bills but the latest drive by diplomacy by Condileeza Rice to seal the deal on US bases approved last week by Bulgaria's Council of Ministers. This followed the 10 year agreement by Bulgaria and the US who agreem the final details for the US military to use several military bases in Bulgaria.(pic of Rice in Turkey to meet Foreign MinisterGul)
The US will be able keep 2,500 troops (doubling at rotation times) to use three Bulgarian military bases - the Novo Selo range and the Bezmer both near Bulgaria's border with Turkey, and the Graf Ignatievo airfield in central Bulgaria. US forces will also use a storage facility near Bulgaria's port of Burgas (and all those gay bars).Rent will not be paid but "operational and maintenance expenses."will be. Troops will be able to be deployed elsewhere using Bulgaira as a holding station.
Contileeza (as the Sofians call her), is expected to sign a broad defense-cooperation agreement with the new NATO ally that would authorize the stationing of foreign forces on its soil for the first time. Their is however opposition , a nationalist party represented in the parliament plans to stage massive protests against the agreement during Contileezza's brief stopover.The possibility that U.S. troops would use a country with a large Muslim minority as a base for an attack on a Muslim nation, such as Iran or Syria, has provoked much strident vocal opposition in Bulgaria.
Contileezza signed a similiar agreement whilst she whizzed through Romania in December 2005. It has been ratified by the parliament's lower chamber and is currently awaiting approval by the Senate, said Sorin Ducaru, the Romanian Ambassador to Washington.
Contileezza is planned to meet NATO Foreign Ministers (another chance of a sneaky meet with Jack the Lad ?). She also paid a fly by night visit to be met by masked rioters throwing gasoline bombs and stones.
5,000 police in riot gear were deployed throughout the Greek capital, firing tear gas at protesters attempted to reach the US Embassy. In scenes reminiscent of Paris in the spring scores of store windows, cafes and hotel lobbies lining one of Athens' premier shopping districts were damaged. Three vehicles were wrecked during a 20-minute rampage. Anti-globalization groups together with Greece's hard-line Communist party had organized the demonstrations, declaring Contileezza "persona non grata" and billing her "a messenger of war." Panos Trigazis, responsible for foreignaffairs of Ecology (Synaspismos) described Rice as a "warmonger" and a "hawk". He said George Bush " has learnt nothing from the fiasco of the war in Iraq which constituted a major political and moral defeat."
An estimated 3,000 peaceful protestors carrying giant banners reading "Rice Go Home" dispersed when police began lobbing tear gas into the crowd. Again it appears the Greeks also call her Contileeza.Anti US sentiment caused Colin Powell to call off a visit at the time of the Athens Olympics.
Contileezza met Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis and tough talking Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis (who refuses publicly to support sanctions against Iran) , discussing the appalling situation in Iraq and Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program as well as Cyprus and Greek-Turkish relations. She will also whizz by Turkey and may even drop in on Nicosia, Cyprus.
In Istanbul, two youths were arrested after unfurling a large banner reading: "Murderer Rice Get Out" out of the window of the top floor of a
In Ankara, some 300 leftists demonstrated in a street just a few hundred yards away from a building where Rice is scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. They doused red paint over an American flag and toy dolls, representing children killed in Iraq.
In Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the Turkish separatist movement PKK has free run of a swath of northern Iraq, and has set up training camps and bases. Turkey fears that civil unrest in Iraq could lead to the fragmentation of the country, and has often called on the United States to stop PKK fighters from using Iraq as a base to stage attacks inside Turkey.
Meanwhile the US is anxious that Turkey (who failed to join in the illegal invasion of Iraq) are anxious they do not chase PKK terists over the border into Iraq. They also want help at UN over Iran, but largely Muslim Turkey does not appear to be a willing member of that Coalition.
As hinted at initially Contileezza has a hidden but immensely important agenda, Headed Kremlin Energy Power Ltd., Alexei Miller, Chairman of Gazprom's Management Committee, met PM Kostas Karamanlis, Dimitris Sioufas, Greek Development Minister and top executives of the Greek Public Gas Corporation DEPA and the Russian-Greek joint venture Prometheus Gas headed by Greek billionaire, entrepreneur and Greek's "Mr Gas" D. Kopelouzos.
They considered the possibility of increasing Russian gas supply to Greece, in particular, extending the existing Contract after 2016 and developing new transmission routes (with the Blue Stream pipeline on the Balkan corridor) Greece could then be (and profit from) Greece being a transit country when gas is delivered to SW EurAsia.
Sibneft (no longer oart of Chelsea FC) have stepped into Lukoil's shoes to supply oil via the Bourgas - Alexandroupolis oil pipeline . (remember Lukoil run the oil/refined products industry pretty well in Cyprus)
Secondly there was the the promise to make serious investments in Greece relating to the aquisition state owned Phosphate Fertilisers Industry.
Last week a consortium of Russia’s Stroytransgaz and Kopelouzos's Prometheus Gas announced their participation in the construction of a pipeline that will link the Greek cities of Komotini and Alexandroupolis, The pipeline, which is to be completed in March 2007 and linked to the Turkish gas transportation system, will be used to supply gas from Azerbaijan and Iran. Though apparently against Russian gas interests the joint Russian-Greek venture was involved under Miller’s interstate agreement between Greece and Russia on gas supplies and supplements to it - giving Greece a handy and very desirable second gas supply source.
The US is absolutely furious but the Diplomatic scuttlebut is, Lord Patel understands across the tables of Northern Cyprus casinos, from his old chum Vajit that Kostas K or "KK" as he likes to be known has told the US Ambassador to Fuck off.
Contileezza will also be in there pitching for a power plant for General Electric for Larco a state owned mining company.
Who knows Contileezza might just bump into Vajit Alekperov in Cyprus - that would be neat. No wonder one of his yachts is in Limassol harbour tonight.
US State Department Official Brief
"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria April 24th through the 28th, 2006. In addition to discussions with leaders of the three countries, she will take part in an informal meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers to discuss preparations for the NATO Summit in Riga, Latvia this coming November. She will also take part in a trans-Atlantic dinner involving the foreign ministers of all NATO and EU countries.
She takes a lovely picture though doesn't she?
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