Business circles in the West defend continued cooperation with Russia, despite the military conflict in the Caucasus and the negative reaction of US politicians and their allies in Europe to Moscow’s conduct. What is interesting about it is the fact that even American companies, because of their wish to export their products, said they are interested in developing trading ties with Russia and asked the Bush administration to be more cautious in its relations with Moscow, Bill Reinsch, the president of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), said. The NFTC unites more than 300 American companies, including Boeing, Caterpillar, General Electric, and Microsoft.
The second positive moment is a statement made by the head of US-based Conoco-Phillips on the continuation of cooperation with Gazprom, Rosneft, and LUKoil. If one of the biggest oil companies in the USA says that it is ready to continue cooperation with Russia, any serious economic or political isolation of Russia is out of the question.
Incidentally, experts say that the military conflict in the Caucasus has not yet led to a decrease in business activity of foreign firms working on the Russian market. First of all, this means Germany. In view of this, Jürgen Tumann, the president of the federal union of the German industry, accentuated the interdependence of Germany and Russia in the economic and energy fields. “Naturally, we can’t do without Russian supplies of oil, gas, and other materials”, then, he added, “Russia needs Germans as consumers”.
Russian expert Igor Davidenko said in commenting on the position of Western businessmen, “The energy sector and manufacturers think correctly because the world can’t do without Russia today. Furthermore, of course, hydrocarbons are Russia’s trump card in the establishment of normal business contacts. Politicians can say whatever they like. But, society is very conservative in the USA. It is so conservative that if it is interested in long-term contacts, it will maintain them. Well, Americans adopt a negative attitude towards Saudi Arabia politically, but, cooperate with it economically. The same is true with Russia. After all, when NATO ships call at Black Sea ports, this is only a demonstration to please their hawks, who are nothing but loud politicians. Moreover, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is one of them. He can say whatever he pleases, but, should he ever become isolated, he shall immediately become a political corpse”.
In the meantime, many Western businessmen dealing with the energy sector voice the certainty that the situation around the conflict in the Caucasus will not affect the Russian supplies of gas and oil products to Europe. Therefore, they said that despite whatever political turmoil occurred, Gazprom has always maintained a continuous supply of gas to consumers. Many people in the West understand that it is impossible to ensure global energy security without Russia.
29 August 2008
Vyacheslav Solovyov
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=81932&cid=20&p=29.08.2008 (in Russian)
