Rebirth of England.

In fact, the relationship between Britain and Russia has always been very complicated. It is no exaggeration to say that the two sides don't like each other.

After all, since the Crimean War between Britain and France, the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia in 1853, there have been countless conflicts and wars between the two sides over the past hundred years.

In Barron's previous life, during the subsequent Russia-Ukraine conflict, Britain was even more active in providing assistance to Ukraine, and could be called the "vanguard" in aiding Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

At present, the relationship between Russia and Britain has not yet recovered from the cooling of relations caused by many previous events.

This story begins with the murder of Litvinenko in 2006.

Litvinenko was a former Russian agent who went into exile in the UK in 2000 and became a British citizen. He died of polonium poisoning in November 2006. At that time, the UK accused Lugovoi, a former Russian agent and current Duma member and businessman, of being the murderer and demanded that he be extradited to the UK for trial, but the Russian side refused. The two sides then started a "war of words", causing relations to drop to a freezing point.

Since then, the conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008 and the equity conflict between BP and Rosneft have not helped to repair the relationship between the two sides.

Even when Cameron visited Russia in 2011, he and Russian President Medvedev only discussed economic and cultural cooperation and rarely talked about politics.

This time, British Foreign Secretary William Hague's visit to Russia, in addition to exchanging views with the other side on the Syrian civil war, was still mainly about communication on economic cooperation.

Barron brought management from companies including United Energy Group, O2 Telecom, and British Motor Group to Russia, preparing to invest and cooperate in the Russian market.

The focus this time is still on energy cooperation with Russia.

In fact, this energy cooperation with Russia is not aimed at Britain, but at the market in continental Europe.

Before Barron came to Russia, Epel Singleton, CEO of United Energy Group, had already visited Romania and Azerbaijan and finalized a series of investment intentions.

You should know that United Energy Group owns oil and gas blocks in Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea region (from the acquired Unocal, see Chapter 403). However, before, for the newly established United Energy Group, the exploitation of the Kolo offshore oil field alone had already occupied a great deal of their energy, and they did not take into account the oil and gas resources in other regions, especially Azerbaijan, which relatively speaking required additional manpower and resources for exploitation.

However, the current scale of United Energy Group is sufficient to cope with the exploitation of more oil and gas blocks. In addition, after this, Barron will enhance his presence in continental Europe in various industries, including the energy industry.

Therefore, they have formulated a new layout plan - in addition to cooperating with Russian domestic oil companies to purchase crude oil and natural gas, they will also start exploiting oil and gas blocks in Azerbaijan.

As we all know, Azerbaijan was once a Soviet republic. Its capital is Baku, which is located on the coast of the Caspian Sea. It is rich in oil resources and has a vast oil storage belt known as the Baku Oil Field.

You should know that the first oil well was drilled in the Baku Oil Field in 1873. In the early 20th century, the Baku Oil Field had the highest output in the world. In 1901, its oil output accounted for almost half of the world's oil output.

When the Baku oil field was at its peak, its output once reached more than 70% of the entire Soviet Union’s oil production!

Of course, that was before Siberia's oil and gas resources were exploited on a large scale.

According to the agreement reached between United Energy Group and Russia, the crude oil and natural gas they purchased mainly came from its North Caucasus and Volga-Urals production areas and were transported to Romania via the Black Sea.

United Energy Group will invest in the construction of a large-scale oil refining base in Romania to specialize in processing this crude oil.

Similarly, crude oil and natural gas produced in Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea region will be transported to Romania for processing via oil and gas pipelines.

In fact, the oil and gas resources produced by Azerbaijan itself are transported to Europe through two channels. One is the pipeline from Azerbaijan through Georgia, and then shipped to Europe via the Black Sea; the other is the oil and gas pipeline through Turkey and then transported to Europe via the Mediterranean.

For United Energy Group, after the oil refining base in Romania is built, it only needs to load the oil at the port of Georgia and ship it across the Black Sea to be refined in Romania and then supplied to Europe.

Speaking of which, the "Three Transcaucasian Countries" of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan can be said to have a very important location, located at the intersection of the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.

But the three countries are also sandwiched between Türkiye and Russia, and their lives are not easy either.

For example, in Georgia, the hometown of the Soviet "father", the original Ossetia region was divided into South Ossetia and North Ossetia by the Caucasus Mountains.

This area has always been inhabited by the Ossetians. North Ossetia belongs to Russia, while South Ossetia has had great conflicts with Georgia in history. South Ossetia declared independence after a referendum in January 1992, but went to war with Georgia because of this. With the help of Russia, the two sides finally reached a ceasefire, and a peacekeeping force composed of Georgia, Russia and Ossetia was stationed there.

Finally, in 2008, Georgia believed that the time had come. With the assurance from the United States that "Russia would not interfere", the world's attention was focused on the Olympics. The Great Emperor also went there as Prime Minister to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Then on August 8, the Georgian military launched an attack on South Ossetia, entered the area, and occupied it in a short time...

After the war broke out, the great emperor immediately rushed back to the country. Then, under his command, the Russian army marched across the border and occupied the entire territory of Georgia in just 10 days.

The final result was that Russia forced Georgia to stop interfering in the two autonomous republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Yes, the consequence of Georgia's proactive attack was that it not only lost control of South Ossetia, but also lost the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia...

This war also allowed Russia's sphere of influence to extend beyond the Caucasus Mountains, providing it with a strategic fulcrum in the Transcaucasus region.

As for the other two Transcaucasian countries, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the situation is not peaceful either.

Shortly before Barron was reborn in his previous life, Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war.

Simply put, the conflict between the two sides lies in the Nagorno-Karabakh region (gray and red areas). To put it simply, the Nagorno-Karabakh region is to Armenia and Azerbaijan what Jerusalem is to Israel and Palestine.

Armenians used to mainly live in this region, but the three Transcaucasian countries have always been sandwiched between two major powers, Russia and Türkiye, which has led to a complicated relationship between them.

Armenians are Christians and Azerbaijanis are Muslims.

When the Ottoman Turkish forces invaded here, the Armenians were driven out of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and Azerbaijanis, who believed in Islam like them, were introduced.

But the Tsarist Russia was powerful, and when it came here, it moved the Armenians who also believed in Christianity back, and the Azerbaijanis became a minority...

Later, both Armenia and Azerbaijan joined the Soviet Union, and the situation finally calmed down. Although the Soviet Union placed the Nagorno-Karabakh region under the management of Azerbaijan, most of the people here at the time were Armenians. If the Soviet Union had continued to exist, since they were all one family, there wouldn't have been too many problems.

However, the Soviet Union collapsed...

So when the Soviet Union collapsed and Armenia declared independence, it pulled the Nagorno-Karabakh region (which is mostly Armenian) together. At that time, a war broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but because Armenia obtained Russian weapons support and was the winning party, the Nagorno-Karabakh region belonged to Armenia.

However, Azerbaijan has never given up its fight for the Nagorno-Karabakh region. In addition, Azerbaijan has oil and can buy more weapons.

Moreover, Azerbaijan and Turkey are both pan-Turkic countries, and Azerbaijan recognizes Turkey as its big brother (they have an enclave, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which borders Turkey). Turkey has given great support to Azerbaijan, including the production line of drones.

Finally, in 2022 in the original time and space, Azerbaijan regained the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the war with Armenia. In this war, Azerbaijan relied on their drone technology, which was stronger than Armenia, to gain an advantage.

In addition, they also hope to further take over the Zangezur Corridor to connect their homeland with the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, an enclave bordering Turkey.

This is why United Energy Group chose to mainly exploit its oil and gas resources in Azerbaijan and not invest heavily there to build an oil refining base.

After all, the situation in places like the three Transcaucasian countries is very complicated. Russia, Turkey and NATO are all focusing their attention here. With Barron's identity, his presence there is too strong. NATO will still be able to deal with it, but a NATO traitor like Turkey and Russia will inevitably be very wary.

And for Barron, there is no need to provoke such fear now. It would be better for him to manage his European business well.

For example, the oil refining base invested by United Energy Group in Romania is very popular with the local government. In addition, O2 Telecom itself occupies a certain market share in Romania, which also allows its influence to begin to extend here.