Found this report from Arabian business.com from yesterday (9/2/2016).
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/bahr...-in-russian-state-investment-fund-621176.html
The Baharain's are doing a deal to invest in Russia. Seems that some people prefer carrots to sticks.
"Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat has pumped $250 million into Russia’s fund for direct investments, a Russian official has reportedly revealed."
Not sure how accurate this report is but it says.
"He added that Russian firm Gazprom has stepped up efforts to increase cooperation with Bahrain on liquefied natural gas (LNG)."
and also it says
"Lavrov was speaking during a visit to Bahrain by Russian president Vladimir Putin and his delegation this week.
Following the discussions between Putin and Bahrain’s King Hamad, a new committee is to be established to boost trade and economic cooperation on sectors including energy, industry, transport and infrastructure, GDN said. A draft agreement on such a committee is under consideration."
and carries this photo of Putin and King Hamad shaking hands (not sure if it is a current photo).
View attachment 142045
If that report is correct that is a very high level diplomatic delegation that visited Bahrain this week, especially if it included Putin himself. My impression from reports I read a few weeks ago was that only foreign minister Lavrov was going to make the trip. Is something brewing here? Remember that the resolution to the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 was negotiated between a journalist named
John A. Scali working for ABC news and a KGB spy named
Alexander Feklisov. The Russians could be using their relations with King Hamad to help broker the deal with the Saudis. Probably not all going to happen this week as they will be a very complex and time consuming negotiation, but this year surely IMO
Eshmun
