The Kremlin’s assertiveness and strident defence of national interests in the Putin era is ascribed to the boom in world prices of natural gas and oil, which Russia exports in abundance. Russia reaped direct dividends of the steep incline in fossil fuel prices by accumulating foreign exchange reserves to the tune of $560 billion by mid-2008. Indirectly, possession of the much-coveted strategic minerals enabled Russia to neutralise energy-hungry western European countries, particularly Germany, so that the ‘West’ was divided from taking an anti-Moscow foreign policy line.
Ever since fossil fuel prices inflated from 2004, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa saw their own versions of petro-states that turned into major regional powers to threaten American hegemony. Thanks to steady increases in the price of oil, Iran’s star rose astronomically in the most volatile area of the world. As the second largest producer of oil and natural gas, Iran could build its own web of alliances in Europe and the rest of Asia to counter the impending American and Israeli threats to its territorial integrity.
Flush with petro-dollars, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad matched American and Israeli belligerence with a scaled-up defiance that brought back memories of the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The thawing of revolutionary anti-Americanism of the late 1990s when moderate Presidents like Mohammad Khatami were in power also coincided with artificially depressed world oil prices. When crude sold for less than $25 a barrel, Tehran had a scantier resource base on which to strengthen its military and diplomatic fortifications. By the time it peaked to $145 a barrel, Mr. Ahmadinejad could afford to be as hawkish as the Ayatollahs who supervise him.
http://newageislam.com/the-rise-(and-fall?)-of-petro-states--/islam-and-politics/d/942
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11:07 PM
Moderate Islamist here
