| |
|
| |
|
The Nabucco pipeline originally supposed to emerge as a rival to Russia's South Stream and as the first ever direct energy link between Europe and the resourceful Central Asia is about to face a major downscaling. The news immediately grabbed the headlines, but it would be naive to expect that Brussels will altogether abandon its ambitious plan for a southern energy corridor with a gas pipeline traversing the Caspian Sea as the key part...
Aleksandr SHUSTOV | 03.04.2012 |
|
| |
|
The developments around the Trans-Caspian Pipeline project supposed to provide an undersea energy supply link between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are about to reach a critical point... An escalation is imminent if drastic steps to advance the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline are taken. The US, which at the moment intends to shift some of its military infrastructures from Afghanistan to Central Asia, will likely intervene in the conflict...
Aleksandr SHUSTOV | 29.11.2011 |
|
| |
|
The EU is open about its intention to ignore Russia's and Iran's positions as it goes ahead with the Trans-Caspian pipeline construction... For Washington, Nabucco is a form of curbing China's appetite for the natural resources of the region. The project will as well help the US strengthen the grip on Central Asian republics' political elites which Washington has been courting for quite some time. In the nearest future, we can expect to see the US and the EU act in concert not only to advance Nabucco but, as a parallel process, to drag the Caspian republics out of Russia's orbit...
Aleksandr SHUSTOV | 01.10.2011 |
|
| |
|
Russian general staff chief Gen. N. Makarov warned at a media briefing in Moscow on September 12 that revolutions patterned on the Libyan one can recur in Central Asia... Lack of direct access to Central Asia from the traditional NATO responsibility zone would put serious obstacles in the way of an intervention comparable to the one recently launched against Libya. At the moment the transit routes used to supply NATO bases in Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan are entirely dependent on Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan...
Aleksandr SHUSTOV | 19.09.2011 |
|
| |
|
A wave of anti-government protests in the Arab world has made us think about whether such events are possible in other parts of the planet... Taking into account geographical location of Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Xinjiang autonomous district of China and other hotbeds of instability, as well as geopolitics of the Central Asian region which has common borders with Russia, China, India and Iran, the consequences of possible unrest will do the former Soviet republics more harm than to Libya.
Aleksandr SHUSTOV | 16.03.2011 |
|
| |
|
The present list of top 10 developments in Central Asia in 2010 was compiled on the basis of the author's assessment of their impact on the region's political and socioeconomic landscape. In any case, the developments surveyed below will likely have enduring repercussions for Central Asia...
Aleksandr SHUSTOV | 18.01.2011 |
|
| |
|
Moscowmay be wary to let Turkmenistan gain independent access to the European gas market but will eagerly assist Ashgabat in reaching out to other potential buyers. Notably, Russia's involvement in the supply of Turkmen gas to India and Pakistan across Afghanistan was on the agenda of the talks in Ashgabat...
Igor TOMBERG | 24.10.2010 |
|
