If you asked most people on the street which nation produces the most oil most of them would say that the answer is Saudi Arabia of course.  But they would be dead wrong.  The truth is that Russia is the number one oil producer in the world.  Not only that, but Russia is also the number one natural gas exporter in the world.

So what does that mean?

It means that Russia is the top energy superpower on the globe. 

Russia pumped more than 10 million barrels of oil per day during November, and now they have done something which will give them even more power over energy.

Russia has just finished a new oil pipeline and port complex that enables them to export more oil than Saudi Arabia.  On December 28th, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was on hand to celebrate the opening of Russia’s first modern Pacific-based oil export facilities.  The Pacific port of Kozmino is a project that Putin is extremely proud of, and it promises to literally change the world.

So what makes this port so significant?

The new Kozmino complex promises to be a gate through which Russia’s vast East Siberian oilfields will supply oil for Asia’s energy-hungry economies.

Notice that the Middle East and the West are not part of that equation.

According to Reuters, the first oil transport will load at Kozmino on January 15th.  Hong Kong is scheduled to receive that first shipment.

But this is just the latest sign that Russia has more than recovered from their past economic woes.

In fact, the Russian Bear is back.

Not only is Russia the number one energy superpower in the world, but their economy has been rocking over the past decade.  Russia ended 2008 with GDP growth of 6.0%, and that followed 10 straight years of growth averaging 7% annually.

Moscow is now one of the most expensive cities in the world in which to live.  The economic turmoil of the 90s is a long-forgotten memory.

Russia has been using this new economic power to modernize and strengthen both its conventional military forces and its strategic military assets.

The truth is that Russia is not as strong as they were at the end of the Cold War.

They are now far stronger.

In early 2010, Russia is now a greater strategic threat to the United States than it ever has been before, but the U.S. is still treating Russia as though the Cold War just ended and Russia was the loser.

In fact, Barack Obama is pushing for a plan which would reduce the size of the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal to about 10 percent of what it was during the Cold War.

Fortunately, some in the Pentagon are quite upset about Barack Obama’s plan to start phasing out America’s nuclear weapons.

But the vast majority of the American people seem unconcerned.

But they should be.

The number of threats and the number of potential targets is multiplying at a time when Obama wants to dramatically reduce our nuclear capability.

Back during the Cold War, the Soviet Union was basically the only “real” nuclear threat out there.  Today the situation has fundamentally changed.

But Obama believes that in order for the U.S. to have the right preach to other nations that they should not have nuclear weapons, we need to start getting rid of our own. 

So he is dismantling the protective nuclear deterrent that has protected the United States for generations.

With the Russian Bear back and stronger than ever, someday Americans will realize what a massive mistake that was.

We love to get reader comments, and we publish as many as we can (as long as they are clean and not overly spammy), and we do try to take each one of them into consideration. In response to our last post, a reader named Filip posted the following comment: “…I love the articles on this website but man you guys are lazy! one article every 2 weeks and then for this one you make an article with links to most of your previous articles give me a break…”

This comment really made us reflect for a moment.

Are we actually lazy?

Maybe we are.

We certainly are not angry at Filip for his comment.

The truth is that we understand that it is frustrating to come to a good website and find that nothing has been put up in the last few days.

But on the days when we can’t get to this website we are actually quite busy.

The reality is that my wife and I run over 50 websites by ourselves – many of them that need continual updating.

We find that having a larger number of outlets is a better way for our message to reach a larger audience, but it also makes it difficult to post on sites like this as much as we would like.

So then how can readers like Filip follow our work without going crazy?

Well, let us suggest the following ways to keep up with everything that we put out without having to run around to 50 different sites….

#1) Follow us on Twitter – our account is Revelation1217 and we post updates there on all the articles that we do related to the last days and Bible prophecy.

#2) Follow us on Facebook – you can friend us on Facebook here.  That is an account that we also use to post updates on all of our most important new articles.

#3) Check “The Most Important News” every day – We run a daily news website called The Most Important News, and five or six days a week (on normal weeks) we post the most important news headlines from all over the world.  That site posts a lot of stories that are very important to Bible prophecy, so it is an important site to check out every day.

#4) On our StumbleUpon profile you can find a list of most of the key articles that we have posted the last few days.  In fact, if you subscribe to our profile that will really help you keep connected with us.

#5) One of our new websites that is getting a TON of attention is The Economic Collapse Blog.  If you have not done so yet, please go check it out.

#6) To learn more about what we believe in (Biblical Christianity), please check out our statement of faith on another one of our new websites.

#7) Lastly, learning all of these things about the last days will not do you any good if you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  To learn how you can enter into a relationship with God, please read this recent article that we posted about what the Bible says about salvation.