Putin's Hot War - The Profit Angle By Christian A. DeHaemer | Thursday, March 20th, 2014 

Putin's Nickel-Plated GunRussia has essentially annexed Crimea and is amassing troops at the border of Ukraine. The relationship between the United States and Russia has regressed back to the Cuban Crisis days. While we may not be on the verge of trading nukes, it does seem we are headed for a new Cold War. Every time Obama draws lines in the sand, Putin steps across them, whistling. Last week, Obama struck back in a surprise move by releasing five million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This drove down the cost of West Texas Crude (WTI) from $105 to $98 a barrel. Russia gets half of its revenue from exporting oil and gas. Obviously the cheaper oil is, the less money Russia makes from its sales. The SPR release was a message to Putin that the financial side of this coming war has begun. Commodity markets will be used as a weapon against the Putin regime starting... now. But two can play it this way, and Putin has already stated that there will be reprisals for any type of sanctions. Norilsk Nickel (OTC: NILSY), a Siberian company, is the largest nickel producer in the world, which makes Russia the largest producer of nickel in the world. The metal is primarily used to make stainless steel.