What do eat for Christmas eve dinner?

Image by Imaginary Museum Projects: News Tableaus
There are many associations with the financial crisis of Cyprus and the role of Russian money deposits and alleged whitewashing: the biggest Russian enterprise Gazprom. This brings of course also the role of President Putin as someone for a long time directly related to Gazprom into view. The broken amphoras of the Cypriot banking systems, may be on a next exploration be supplanted with uncountable amphoras filled with natural gas.

The gas fields within the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cyprus are believed to hold (85×109 to 250×109 m3) of natural gas. These fields are named after the goddess of Aphrodite, who according to one of most common versions of Greek myth rose from the sea when the Titan Cronus cut off the genitals of the god of the sky Uranus and threw them over his back into the sea, causing a wave of foam from which Aphrodite (Venus) rose. A scene most wide known by the painting of Sandro Boticelli.

This demi-god-like picture of Putin on the beach of Cyprus standing with his feet in the mythical foam – from which the goddess Aphrodite rose – is also linked to the myths of the Argonauts and their ship (that figures on some Cyprus Euro coins) … looking for the ‘golden fleece’ a sheepskin which archeologists link to ancient gold mining method in Georgian rivers… that lead to the Black Sea… where the original photograph of Putin as an archeologist diver was ‘mis en scène’ … so soon the χάος (chaos) gold might flow from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea to the customers of Gazprom as a kingly reward.

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Some additional documentation

Let me quote – in full – a newspaper article from teh Greek Reporter March 18 2013 :

"Russian energy giant Gazprom has offered the Republic of Cyprus a plan in which the company will undertake the restructuring of the country’s banks in exchange for exploration rights for natural gas in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone, local media reported.

Representatives of the Russian company submitted the proposal to the office of Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Sunday evening, Sigma TV reported.

The proposal states that Gazprom will fund the restructuring of the country’s crippled financial institutions in exchange for substantial control over the country’s gas resources while Cyprus won’t need to take the harsh bailout package offered by the EU.

EU offered a 10 billion euros rescue package to Cyprus with the condition of raising 5.8 billion euros (.5 billion) by taking a piece of every bank account in Cyprus. The originally proposed levies on deposits are 9.9 percent for acounts exceeding 100,000 euros and 6.7 percent on anything below that.

Cypriot President Nicos Anstasiades is not willing to discuss the Russian’s offer according to Newsit who cited an anonymous source close to the President.

“The president is not going to discuss this plan because he wants a solution that will come from the EU,” said the anonymous source.

Shortly after the rejection of the Gazprom proposal, Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the Association of Regional Banks of Russia and a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Russia spoke to Interfax describing the country’s banking system as “not trustworthy” and advised Russian citizens “to withdraw their deposits from Cyprus.”

“Our belief, that Cyprus is a place where it is convenient for people to keep their money, will be undermined if the Cypriot parliament passes the decision of Eurogroup» said Aksanov.

Cyprus’s Parliament has postponed its decision on whether it will go along with a tax of up to 9.9 percent on the savings of bank account holders as demanded by international lenders in return for a 10 billion euros ( billion) bailout to keep the island country’s economy from collapsing. The vote that was due to take place on March 17 was pushed back to Monday, a holiday in Greece and Cyprus, when banks would be closed in any case.

Gazprom is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company."

greece.greekreporter.com/2013/03/18/gazprom-offers-cyprus…

There are other interesting partners as well, like Israel, so it seems that the banking crisis will give Russia some levelling power to negotiate itself – also – into this part of the market. It also will explain also how from the side of Turkey claims and manoeuvring around it are to be expected. This longer quotation is from ‘Netural Gas Europe’ web site:

"The huge natural gas discoveries in the Israeli basin are promising. Israel might not only become self sufficient in terms of its gas needs for decades but also become a next gas exporter boosting the state’s revenues (Israel expects to start extracting from the offshore Tamar field in 2013, become a net exporter in 2017 and start generating a revenue stream by 2020). The potential implications on European energy security are also not to be neglected. Israeli and Cypriot waters alone are said to contain enough gas – without taking into consideration the oil reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean – to satisfy the European’s market energy needs for almost a decade (at current consumption rates). Diversification of gas supply would ease Europe’s dependence on Russia and contribute in attaining Europe’s strategy to shift to a greater use of natural gas. The concept of EMEC (Eastern Mediterranean Energy Corridor) was born as a result.

Given the importance of interests at stake, collaboration between interested parties is paramount. There is no doubt that the Cyprus-Israeli cooperation is as strong as ever: a joint exploitation of gas is the goal. The construction of a liquefaction facility on Cyprus that would process and export the gas received from Israeli Leviathan and Cypriote Aphrodite has even been called by Delek and Noble, licencees of Cyprus’ Block 12.

The resources are there. However, trust and confidence remain doubtful. Maritime borders and exclusive economic zones disputes persist between the Eastern Mediterranean players: Greece and Turkey, Israel and Lebanon and also Cyprus and Turkey. Huge investments need to be made to enable Israel to enter the European market as a new energy importer and those investments need to be secured in a region that has been known for its agitated waters."

www.naturalgaseurope.com/eastern-mediterranean-israel-cyp…

Question by Just trying to make it: What do eat for Christmas eve dinner?
Besides the traditional ham/ turkey and sides…. whatelse do you make. My mother-in-law is coming over and I thought I would make something but kinda burned out on the traditional things….

Maybe some gumbo? Or Enchiladas?

What else???

Feel free to answer in the comment section below