主题：【文摘】老美经济论坛关于YUKO事件的有趣对话1：主贴 － 俄国的新武器 -- 西风陶陶

Russia's new weapon to destroy the USA!

I am going to express an opinion that I admit in advance, that I have really no knowledge about or evidence ( other than what is unfolding now ) . The opinion is this: That although the Yukos oil company affair in Russia may have began as a campaign to collect back taxes and destroy it's chairman's political threats to the Russian leadership, that campaign has now morphed into a program designed to roil oil markets--raising prices; and ultimately hurting or destroying their arch enemy--the United States, economically!

Allow me to point out a few factors that I feel still vex the Russians when they consider the United States:

1. They were humiliated by their own collapse at the end of the cold war; and over the years, the United States has continued to "rub-it-in".

2. I feel that they have not forgotten how we sided and helped the Afgans after the Russians attempted to gain control of Afghanistan in the early 1980's; and again--we, over the years, have not been shy about pointing out the many ways we helped defeat and ultimately weaken them.

3. Later on--1998 and their economic crisis. Again, wasn't it the shifty Western bankers that tricked them into the predicament that precipitated their currency problems ( their perspective ) .

4. And now, do they feel that the U.s. will only make nice with them as long as they go along with our program? I refer you to Iraq, where the Russians stand to lose Billions due to our invasion of Iraq, which they did not back, and surely see us too, as meddlers in their back yard.

5. The U.S. can't seem to help but to criticize Russia's handling of their rebelling provinces, as if we wouldn't crush rebellion here, if our Georgia decided it wanted it's independence!

Ok--so there is a short list of recent grievances that I feel the Russians may be chafing under even now, though publicly not stated.

So, Putin or someone over there starts this tax program against the oil company and it's CEO, has him jailed, etc. It's all a private internal matter right? No one else's business. After all, our own IRS goes after renegade tax cheats all the time--nothing radical about that! Well, Voe-La!

All of a sudden the oil markets begin to get spooked and crude prices begin to rise on fears of shortage, at the same time that demand continues to peak.

And there is the basis for the transformation for this episode into something else. For the Ruskies know that our big vulnerabilities are oil demand, it's price, and the follow-through effect that it has on our economy. They also can see the vulnerability of our debt pyramids to a crisis in world confidence to our economic strength. The longer the Russians can continue to dangle Yukos from a web before the world, the more precarious the U.S. situation becomes. I feel that they realize this now, and may have determined that this is the way to finally get to the United States in a way that they have never been able to before.

The more that Yukos can be slowly tortured and slowly made to cut back production, the more they as a nation win. They injure the United States economically. While at the same time, for months now, this tax and company investigation has been accepted by the U.S. and other nations as simply an internal Russian matter. How could we begin to protest it now? The Russians also benefit as a big oil producer at now higher prices. And, any economic crisis--dollar crisis--or crisis in U.S. markets will also benefit the Gold price, of which they are also large producers.

I have been amazed at the political silence in our country about this matter. Maybe, it's because the Russians are still a pretty tough dog; the more we might bark, the more they could bite!