Bulgaria, Gas and Oligarchy

[Plane]

Oligarchies do a lot of what they do in secret, but not this, these maneuvers have been uncovered and are pretty plain to see.

I liked this article. it gives a good picture of what is at stake and how things are done, best of all it gives a picture of the people involved. Good job JIM YARDLEY, JO BECKER and New York Times.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/how-putin-forged-a-pipeline-deal-that-derailed/ar-BBhobhk



Note the English supertitle?
No one involved was English or American, probably not even New Zealander, so why does a publicity shot need English at all?

I think English is still the language of business even when the deal is between countries that neither one speak it. This may not be permanent , it may not even be important , but there it is.
   

[Xavier_Onassis]

The photo was posed. Investments require investors, and investors do not understand the Cyrillic alphabet, which looks weird to them.
"Yodzhen Potok" would probably be just meaningless, so they put it in English. The pipeline has European (EU)  customers, and the agreed upon language of the EU is English.

[Plane]

   If there were a lot of investable cash in eastern Europe we might indeed be putting Cyrillic  words on everything.

    I still recommend this article , most of the cash involved was Russian, including the bribes.

[Christians4LessGvt]

Plane the Oligarchy may throw Putin out!



NATO does not rule out overthrow of Putin in 2015

27 December 2014


 
The growth of external debt, weakening market conditions, falling of the ruble - the economic crisis in Russia is very dangerous for its ringleader, writes the German newspaper Bild, citing the conclusions of NATO experts.

NATO does not rule out the overthrow of Putin from post of president of Russia. Senior experts are already losing scenario, writes Bild.

Western strategists believe that in connection with the sanctions and loss of earnings pressure on Putin by powerful oligarchs to the end of 2015 will be so powerful that he simply will be forced to leave. The need of entirely new measures arises that the newspaper called "reset for the salvation of Russia".

According to the information of Bild, the possibility of overthrow of Putin is not excluded also in German government circles. In particular, the newspaper refers to the opinion expressed in an interview with foreign policy expert of the CDU/CSU in the Bundestag Karl-Georg Wellmann, who believes that the economic and social crisis in Russia represents a growing threat to the Putin's circle.

According to the prognosis of Western experts, in 2015, Russia's GDP will shrink by 4.5 per cent, notes the German newspaper Bild.

http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2014/12/27/19805.shtml

[Xavier_Onassis]

I imagine that the purpose of the English words on the pipeline was to stress to their customers that it was a well-managed, seriously businesslike corporation that could be relied upon to  supply gas to its customers. There are a number of ways to invest in Russia and Eastern Europe. I have not done so, because the disclosure regulations of Russian and Eastern European companies are nonexistent, unenforced, or both. The same is true of China and India. I have invested in China, and made about 20% annually in the Matthews China Fund (MCHFX) several years ago. One of the best performing funds for 2014 was MINDX, the Matthews India Fund. Last year it increased 69.4%, which is better than any fund my adviser newsletter follows. I did not take advantage of this because it was not recommended. Apparently the new government in India has inspired a lot of confidence.