(06-20-2019, 06:45 PM)mikesez Wrote:

(06-20-2019, 05:31 PM)Predator Wrote: Russia and China have huge interest in the region. It has some of the largest oil reserves in the world. You don't need to have a footprint when the door is left wide open for you.

Do you not remember Russia annexing part of the Ukraine just to get their oil reserves? You really don't think they would take a keen interest in expanding their influence in the region? They're already in Syria.

They would be more than happy to expand their influence to Saudi Arabia and fulfill the all needs of their 60+billion dollar military budget and be the favored trading partner for all that oil.

Russia annexed part of Ukraine because historically it was part of Russia. The people there spoke Russian rather than Ukrainian. The Shale gas was probably a necessary ingredient of their interest, but it wasn't the only ingredient.  
Russia has parked its Navy at Sevastopol (in Crimea) for over a century. And they've been parked at Tartus (Syria) for a long time as well.
The interest in maintaining is navy bases is probably stronger than the interest in getting a little more Shale gas.

There are a whole bunch of sovereign countries that speak Russian and were once part of Russia. Does Russia have the right to annex them too? Does Britain have the right to annex India because it historically was part of the British empire and most of them speak English? Both empires seized control over these lands around the same time.

The Ukraine and Russia already had a treaty allowing the Russian Black Sea fleet to be based in Sevastopol.

Why would they need to annex if they already had access? Because their interest wasn't the port, it's in what's underground and the oil rights that extend out into the Black Sea.

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