A New Problem For Greece Emerges: How To Do the Russian “Unpivot” After Capitulating To The Troika

While Greece is collectively scratching its head why Tsipras et al were at loggerheads with Europe for 4 months, during which time the Greek economy entered a recession and saw its banks not only depleted of all cash but become de facto wards of the ECB, just to reach an “agreement” that could have taken place back in February, and attention shifts to just how Tsipras will pass last night’s impromptu capitulation through hard-line leftist parliamentarians, Greece now has another problem: how to unpivot the aggressive pivot toward Russia in the past few months, which culminated with the signing of an energy deal last week in St. Petersburg.

It goes without saying that if Greece is scrambling to go back into the Troika’s good graces, Belgium will make it very clear that any overtures to Putin are to be “cease and deceased” (sic) immediately. Which opens a can of worms for the Marxists in government: how to slam shut the door to their ideological Plan B, when everyone knows the Grexit fiasco will repeat again in a few months, and Greece will again be knocking on the Kremlin’s door.

Gazprom’s Oil Arm Signs Strategic Deal With Halliburton

MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) – Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russia’s state-owned gas monopoly, has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with US energy services giant Halliburton to facilitate technological exchanges that will help increase production, the Russian company said Tuesday.

“One aspect of cooperation will be special technical seminars for employees of Gazprom Neft, with the aim of getting to know the main ways in which Halliburton uses its technology,” Gazprom Neft said in a statement posted on its website. “Some of the most important topics will concern work with tight oil reserves, unconventional resources and deep-water drilling.”