Russia, BP, and Mr. Sarah Palin

By GottaLaff

Six degrees of separation...

Jon in Comments linked me to this (it's from March of this year):

BP's problems in Russia continued Friday.

A Russian environmental agency announced that it would inspect a large oil field in Siberia, the Samotlor, which is controlled by BP's joint venture, TNK-BP. The announcement came a day after Russian security authorities arrested a TNK-BP employee on charges of industrial espionage.

Pop quiz: Whose husband is a BP employee?

UPDATE from Jon:

Since writing the above sentence, I went to Moscow Times and found the latest story is secret talks to hammer out a permanent deal. Interesting I'd find that headline today, of all days, because it sure wasn't looking good for the partnership before today.

The future of petroleum supply is the Arctic Circle, and most of that belongs to Russia. Palin and her BP-employed husband ought to particularly understand that. What makes no sense about this ticket is McCain's apparent desire to actively antagonize Russia, as he's done long before the recent events in the Caucasus (and before we found out about Scheunemann's lobbying for Georgia). I can only wonder what McCain's adviser-handlers are really up to, or if the team's incompetence really is worse than we thought.