----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 8:33 PM Subject: [STOPNATO] FINANCIAL REVIEW: Russia in Central Asia and Caucasus STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM Putin flexing muscles on oil By Nick Hordern Russia is reviving its influence in the Caspian basin, extending its control over export routes for the region's petroleum at the expense of rival United States-backed schemes. At the same time, the Commonwealth of Independent States has conceded Russia an enlarged security role in Central Asia. At their summit in Moscow on Wednesday, the first chaired by President Vladimir Putin, CIS leaders agreed to establish a joint anti-terrorist organisation headed by a senior Russian intelligence official. The new body is intended to prevent the spread of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, a threat which the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, described as the greatest danger to the region. Moscow's reassertiveness shows President Putin is flexing his muscles, according to Dr Amin Saikal, the professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies at the Australian National University. Oil-rich Azerbaijan recently announced it would import gas to meet its domestic power generation needs. The announcement reflected pressure from Moscow on the Caucasian republic to fulfil its commitment to export specified quantities of oil from its capital Baku through Russia's pipeline network to the Black Sea export terminal of Novorossiysk. As a result, Russian influence in Baku will increase - and not only because Azerbaijan is likely to import the gas it needs from Russia. If Moscow maintains the pressure - including reported threats of economic sanctions - on Azerbaijan, there will be less Azeri oil available for export through the proposed pipeline from Baku to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, a route strongly backed by Washington. And on June 16 it was reported that PSG International, a consortium of US firms Bechtel Corp and General Electric, was abandoning its proposal to build a gas pipeline under the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan to Azerabaijan. This line had also been a key element in the US strategy to tie the former Soviet, Caspian basin States to the West through energy exports. In the decade since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has seemed too feeble to contest US efforts to take the Caucasian and Central Asian republics, and their petroleum reserves, out of Moscow's orbit. But in the nine months since he ordered the invasion of the breakaway Caucasian republic of Chechnya, President Putin seems to have reversed the trend. During his recent visit to European Union capitals, he drove a wedge between Europe and Washington over US plans to develop its national missile defence scheme. With his new assertiveness in Central Asia and the Caucasus, Russian foreign policy almost sounds like Soviet-era diplomacy, Dr Saikal said. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] GET PAINLESS BUSINESS FINANCING! Comparison shop for, apply for, and secure financing from the nation's best-known financial institutions. One short application gets you the financing your business needs. Get the financing you need today at LiveCapital.com! http://www.bcentral.com/fcsponsor/livecapital
