Once upon a time, there was a half-a-trillion-dollar oil deal between ExxonMobil and one of Russia's two largest oil companies: Rosneft. It was expected to be a game changer for the Russian economy ...desmogblog.com/2014/03/17/exx…,
But then Russia invaded Ukraine and seized Crimea, prompting the Obama administration to slap sanctions on Rosneft and its uber powerful, Putin-allied CEO, Igor Sechin businessinsider.com/igor-sechin-da…
Those sanctions effectively killed the Rosneft deal, costing the participants a fortune (think Putin would have gotten a cut?) The sanctions really, really hurt the Russian economy. fortune.com/2014/12/18/rus…
When things got really bad, you know who stepped in and bought up a bunch of Rosneft? The friendly, super wealthy nation of Qatar... reuters.com/article/us-rus…
Then in 2017, Russia got itself a friendly new American president ... somehow ... and things seemed to be looking up... thinkprogress.org/putin-helped-t…
Russia asked for a waiver from the Rosneft sanctions... nytimes.com/2017/04/19/bus…
But friendly new president couldn't deliver. And ultimately, even with the former ExxonMobil CEO running the State Department, the sweet Rosneft deal was not meant to be ... nytimes.com/2018/02/28/bus…
Qatar fell on tough times. They were blockaded by the Saudis and lost their White House friends. Coincidentally, they'd refused to bail out the American president's son-in-law's building ... Then magically, they got back in the Trumps' good graces! vanityfair.com/news/2018/05/k…
And while Qatar had thought about selling off its Rosneft stake, they ultimately changed their mind... ft.com/content/402ab5…
Everybody likes Qatar again. haaretz.com/us-news/qatar-…
This is all fine.
