Putin Supports Environmental Protesters In Texas
Earlier this week Governor Greg Abbott delivered the State of the State address to the Texas Legislature, prior to the 85th legislative session, highlighting the accomplishments of the Lone Star State. Governor Abbott pointed out that Texas represented the tenth largest economy in the world, noting that it was even larger than the Russian economy.
“And as Comptroller Hegar noted for us earlier, if Texas were its own country we would now be the 10th largest economy in the entire world. Our economy is larger than Australia, larger than Canada and, yes, larger than Russia.”
The Kremlin has certainly been aware of this prior to Governor Abbott’s speech. According to Newsweek, recent intelligence reports indicate that the Russian government has been working to undermine the U.S. and Texas energy industry by supporting the campaign against fracking and natural gas by using RT, Russia’s propaganda outlet, to run a number of television stories and news reports against fracking and the use of natural gas.
These Russian reports aimed at destabilizing the Texas energy market include stories in December as well as earlier this week to promote the protests of a natural gas pipeline in West Texas. By promoting these protests, the Kremlin is likely seeking to bring Texas energy projects to a halt to benefit their own energy sector.
Russian support will unlikely deter the protesters, as they have already spoken out against capitalism in America. These protesters have made it clear that they will ignore the benefits of the oil and gas industry to the West Texas community and economy, as well as disregarding the safety of the pipeline. These continued extreme actions of the environmental left not only put the Texas economy at risk, but could also increase the power of the Russian government.