Win, Lose or Draw, Putin Has Made One Thing Clear

Russian oil will never belong to the West

Alex Ates Haywood
5 min readMar 18, 2022
Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

I remember the burning oil fields as far as the eye could see when a maniacal Saddam Hussein realized he had lost.

It is doubtful that Putin has the power to lay waste to Russia’s oil infrastructure as it is doubtful that he is as maniacal as Saddam Hussein.

Although he may not be the KGB trained super-operative the West makes him out to be, Vlad is a sharp political animal, mired in the Russian nationalism of the Cold War, which to him has never ended. Russia’s oil and gas is the weapon he will use to ensure Russia’s survival, if not dominance in the coming decade.

His military might may be suspect, but in the space of mere days, he has shifted the attention of the whole world from COVID to energy and food.

Who has it?

Who wants it?

Who controls it?

Putin might not demolish the Russian oil infrastructure, but he has deliberately, with fore-warning, demolished the financial infrastructure for exporting Russia’s energy reserves to the West.

By sowing hatred that will last for generations, he is also demolishing the Russian people’s social infrastructure with the West.

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Alex Ates Haywood
Alex Ates Haywood

Written by Alex Ates Haywood

After 20 years in finance I realized it was all a lie. Now I'm trying to figure out what 'it' is. Human being tired of being lied to.

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