Well that snuck past us, didn't it?
Valerie over at alarm:clock euro posts today about something which I am sure a bunch of us missed....check it out:
Last week the media frenzy over the mysterious death of a former Russian spy in London overshadowed the news coming out of a Russo-EU summit in Finland that the European Union failed to establish a new agreement with Russia for the supply of gas and oil - the terms of agreement for a new charter meant to replace one that will expire next year are not in place.
That failure could very well result in higher oil and gas prices for the region in the coming years. Meanwhile, the Swiss press is reporting the hottest November here in 500 years (how they get the stats for the year 1506 we don't know - but we'll let that query slide).
I have to add I read this in amazement since it really seems like the media managed to divert any attention from this with just one event in London (I'm not going to get into conspiracy theory though). The implications of this could technically be far greater than just high oil and gas prices. If you haven't noticed, Europe really needs to make things work with Russia when it comes to oil. Europe also probably has a far better chance of making things work with our friend Putin than our comrades across the pond who are mired in a little conflict elsewhere. I've been indirectly watching all doings with Russia in general with real interest. It's quite amazing (ain't it) how quickly Russia became a SuperPower again. Putin has the oil to play this game and we couldn't of all imagined the wealth which would be created in that region of the world in such a short time. Everyone keeps talking about India and China but the sleeping giant (who really isn't sleeping) is in my eyes Russia. They are India's and China's neighbor and if they were to set up the right allegiances, well, I'm going back to this hat:
Instead of this one if you know what I mean: