Updated Jan 5,
1999
"We [Soviet Russia] need oil
of Baku and Georgian manganese" -- Lenin, 1921. ..."By Georgian-Russian
agreement from 14 Nov. 1920 Russia have get right to use oil
pipe and facilities"...
..."Control of oil routes was the aim of occupation of
Georgia [by Soviet Russia]"... -- Radek,
representative of Soviet Russia on Conference of Third
International, Berlin, 1921 .
..."Georgia was to turn into Russia because we needed oil"...
-- Radek, Hague Congress, 1922.
From: '60-Eme Anniversaire de L'occupation de la
Georgie 1921-1981', Editions 'Tavisouplebiss Tribuna', 1981,
Paris.
Zviad Gamsakhurdia: "Shortly
after my election, a total political and economic blockade on
Georgia was enforced, while every conceivable destructive measure
was taken against the legally elected Georgian Government. Despite
our Declaration of Independence, Gorbachev invited me to
Novo-Ogarevo to sign the Union Treaty. It was following my
explicit refusal to do so, that the Kremlin elaborated a concrete
plan to overthrow Georgia's constitutional Government. President Bush
contributed personally to this persecution of Georgia when he
visited the Soviet Union in the summer of 1991 and persuaded
Ukraine to stay within the USSR - denouncing me as a 'man who
has been swimming against the tide'. Subsequently, his
Secretary of State, James Baker, announced the existence of
an authoritarian regime in Georgia that would never receive any
assistance from the US Administration".
Scent
of Oil - Wes Eill Help US
Getting landlocked Caspian Sea
oil to Western markets has become a source of major controversy between oil companies
working in the region and the Clinton
administration... ...Turkey, a NATO
member, can help to guarantee
the safety of the Baku-Supsa segment
as well as the segment continuing on to Ceyhan... 'Pipeline
to Ceyhan' By Paige B. Sullivan. "Washington
Post", Tuesday, January 5, 1999; Page A11
United States
Interests in the Caucasus Region, Testimony of Robert E.
Ebel before the House Committee on International Relations, July
30, 1996. "Within the last several years, the
Caspian Sea basin of the former Soviet Union has become the focus
of attention for the world oil industry... The pipeline proposed
to carry oil from the Tengiz deposit in Kazakstan to the Black Sea
port of Novorossiisk is the only routing which passes through politically QUIESCENT territory ... No Game
Without Russia... The political and
economic gains to the Caucasus as a corridor for oil and gas are clearly
recognized, but all parties appear to understand that final
routings may be based first on political
considerations... Following prolonged negotiations and
importantly, I believe, an intervention by President Clinton, a
two-pipeline approach was accepted. Politics--not economics--drove
that decision... One pipeline--the northern route--would link Baku
with the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk... Security of the
northern route has to be questioned, however, because it passes
through the heart of Chechnya... The western route
is also faced with a security problem, in that it passes within a
handful of kilometers of the disputed enclave Nagorno-Karabakh...
Pipelines routed through your territory
become steel highways of influence, your
influence, and points of leverage, your
leverage... Russia has become much more aware of the
geopolitical role that energy can play. It intends to use its oil
and gas strength as a means of supporting foreign policy
aims"...
|
Caspian
Crossroads Magazine
OIL AND MONEY TO
FLOW TO RUSSIA THROUGH "IRAQI PIPE". Kirill DYBSKY.
"...Sergei Shoigu's recent visit to Baghdad,
held as part of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry's
humanitarian operations in Iraq, signalled a major change in
Russia's Middle East policy and in the line-up of forces in the
world's oil market..." "...for Russia Iraq is an
acceptable partner despite the controversial character of its
leader. Firstly, Baghdad has remained quite loyal to Russia
despite the latter's "betrayal in Kuwait": Iraq is
practically the only Islamic ountry to react indifferently to the
events in Chechnya. The official Iraqi press made either
neutral or pro-Russian comments. It is also clear that if the
blockade of Iraq is lifted, Russia can count on preferential
treatment in supplying its oil-refining and power-engineering
equipment to Iraq (these sectors of the Iraqi economy
traditionally use Russian technology). In addition, Iraq now
confronts a very serious problem of comprehensive modernisation of
its armed forces, which were technically decimated during the war
with Iran and the blockade. Here too Russia has a good chance for
success: for decades the Iraqi army had been armed by the Soviet
Union..." (Segodnya, December 11). AZERBAIJAN
SIGNS ANOTHER OIL CONTRACT. Representatives of Azerbaijan's
state oil company SOCAR signed on 14 December a $2 billion
25-year contract with a consortium of U.S., Japanese, and Saudi
Arabian companies to develop the Dan Ulduzu and Ashrafi
Caspian shelf deposits, Russian and Western agencies reported. The
deposits are estimated to contain 150 million metric tons of
oil and up to 50 billion cubic meters of gas. SOCAR will have
a 20% stake in the project, Amoco 30%, Unocal 25.5%, Itochu 20%,
and Saudi Arabia's Delta 4.5%. -- Liz Fuller
Berezovskiy Mission: ICHKERIA
LEADERS APPROVE BEREZOVSKY'S APPOINTMENT. By Maria
EISMONT. ...Deputy premier of the new Chechen government,
Ruslan Kutayev reported the opinion of the Chechen leaders in
an interview to ITAR-TASS: he said that the Ichkeria
leadership "welcomed" the Russian President's
opinion and hoped that Mr.Berezovsky "would be able to
settle the most acute problems of Chechnya, i.e. finances for
the economy and social sphere and investments."
(Segodnya, November 1) BEREZOVSKY
VISITS CHECHNYA. Irina KALININA. On November 4, Russia's
premier Viktor Chernomyrdin reiterated his readiness to meet
with Chechnya's separatist leaders soon. "[The] meeting
will be held. Whether in Chechnya or in Moscow is not that
important. It will be held where it needs to be held. But
first, we have to build a platform," he told a
session of the Security Council. This past weekend, the "platform"
was being constructed by Boris. ...One proof was supplied
by Ruslan Martagov, press secretary of Doku Zavgayev, the
former official "head of Chechnya," who told
Interfax that they "did not receive any proposals for a
meeting with Mr. Berezovsky." (Segodnya, November 5) BEREZOVSKII
IN TBILISI. 8 November. ...Berezovskii dubbed Shevardnadze
"the patriarch of the
Caucasus" and termed his experience "unique," and called for the
creation of a new infrastructure that would permit an integrated
approach to structuring relations between the various
Caucasian states taking into account their disparate
interests, according to ORT. -- Liz Fuller RYBKIN
MEETS ZHVANIYA TO AIR THE SITUATION IN CHECHNYA. MOSCOW,
NOVEMBER 14, RIA NOVOSTI - ...Ivan Rybkin met today Georgian
Speaker Zurab Zhvaniya to tell him about complex
measures being applied to overcome the aftermath of the armed
conflict in Chechnya. ...The unity
of the legal and economic spaces are indispensable,
said Rybkin. The sides agreed that the rewarding fact is
that the process involves representatives of the OSCE and
other international organisations, in particular, as observers
at the forthcoming elections in Chechnya. BEREZOVSKII VISITS:
TBILISI . . . Russian Deputy Security Council Secretary Boris
Berezovskii, on his second visit to Georgia in less than a week,
met for two hours behind closed doors with Georgian President
Eduard Shevardnadze on 14 November to discuss the situation in Abkhazia,
Chechnya, and the North Caucasusin general, Russian
media reported. -- Liz Fuller
. . . AND BAKU. Berezovskii then flew to Baku where he discussed
Russian-Azerbaijani relations, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and
the situation in Chechnya with Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliev,
noting that the "urgent" problems of the region are
linked and should be tackled jointly. Berezovskii also tried to
persuade Aliev of the advantages of exporting Azerbaijan's Caspian
Sea oil via the "northern" pipeline that runs through
Dagestan and Chechnya, according to Turan. Aliev told TRT on
14 November, however, that he would prefer that Azerbaijan's
"strategic" (as opposed to "early") oil be
exported through the proposed Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, but that
unnamed members of the consortium engaged in exploiting the
deposits in question oppose that option. -- Liz Fuller
CONTROVERSY
OVER BEREZOVSKII CITIZENSHIP CONTINUES. Izvestiya on 15.
November charged that Security Council Deputy Secretary Boris
Berezovskii has not been entirely accurate in answering
questions about his dual citizenship with Israel.
...Meanwhile, the 14 November issue of Segodnya quoted
Berezovskii as objecting to what he called anti-Semitic
insinuations made about his citizenship by Communist Party
leader Gennadii Zyuganov, Duma Speaker Gennadii Seleznev, and
Izvestiya. -- Laura Belin BEREZOVSKII
SAID TO HAVE A GREEN CARD. Kuranty on 26 November
published a photo of a document it claimed was a valid U.S.
green card in the name of Security Council Deputy Secretary
Boris Berezovskii. Berezovskii had an Israeli passport until
recently, renouncing his citizenship after he was appointed to
the Security Council... -- Penny Morvant NOVEMBER 28. (RIA Novosti, Alvi
Karimov). A
delegation of the Georgian Parliament
arrived in Grozny...
Oil
Arrives In Port Via Test Route, 15 October 1996 (RFE/RL)
..."The Chevron Overseas Petroleum company says a train
carrying 2,200 tons of oil from Baku arrived at Georgia's Black
Sea port of Batumi late yesterday... Georgia would receive
duties of about $8.5 per ton... Work is scheduled to begin
early next year on a 960-kilometer pipeline that would link Baku
to Georgia's Black Sea terminal of Suspa"... RUSSIA
LOSES CASPIAN OIL TO THE WEST. The Chechen
war has wrecked Moscow's territorial monopoly on oil and gas
transportation from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. By R. Narzikulov
..."The Chechen separatists have unexpectedly (first of all, for themselves)
realized that they are badly needed by the West or,
to be more precise, by Western oil companies.
Regardless of their own drive for sovereignty, they can and
have already partially destroyed Russia's territorial
monopoly over the export of Azerbaijan's and Kazakhstan's oil.
Such are the main economic results of the Chechen conflict and
of the war in Chechnya"... "The armed hostilities
and the war have shifted the accents in the transportation of oil
from the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan and Caspian offshore fields in
Azerbaijan towards the alternative variants because the
Russian variant is no longer seen as reliable today. Edward Smith,
the general director of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium or CPC
which was founded four years ago for the construction and
operation of an oil pipeline from Tengiz to Novorossiisk. "It
has been wise on Chevron's part to
consider alternative projects", he
said"... (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, October 22.1996)
A SMALLDECLINE
OF PRODUCTION IS EXPECTED IN RUSSIA'S FUEL AND ENERGY COMPLEX
IN 1996, OCTOBER 10. RIA NOVOSTI, ..."it will make up a
mere about 1.3 per cent... The largest fall is expected
in the production of electricity at the hydraulic power
stations (by 18 per cent)...The drop in output will
range from one to three per cent in all the other cases, including
the whole set of oil products"... AIOC CHAIRMAN NAMES DATE
FOR EXPORT OF FIRST "EARLY OIL.": ..."through
Russia to Novorossiisk on 28 August 1997"... "in
October 1994, it was anticipated that the first
"early oil" would begin to flow in 1996".
(OMRI, 9 October, Liz Fuller)
 Marshall I. Goldman, Petroleum,
Pipelines and Paranoia in the Caucasus
Oil Corridor Dreams: US Ambassador to Georgia
Mr. William H. Courtney, Speeches... OCL is
now concentrating its efforts on major oil-developing and
marketing opportunities in the former Soviet Republics of Central
Asia and the Caucasus and Turkey. Planning for construction
of a 42-inch diameter crude oil pipeline, covering over 1,000
miles from Baku in Azerbaijan to Ceyhan, is under
way. This pipeline follows the most direct and economically
sound route from the Caspian Sea to a deepwater Mediterranean port.
It can have a throughput of up to 1.25 million barrels per day.
A 56-inch diameter natural gas pipeline will follow the
same route as the crude oil line, diverging only slightly at its
terminus in Turkey. This common-carrier natural gas pipeline will
have a capacity throughput of 3 billion cubic feet per day. FCO
Background Brief - Independence Issues in Chechnya Russian
Federation: Independence Issues in Chechnya. "On 11
December 1994 Russian troops intervened militarily in the Republic
of Chechnya, situated in the"...
[http://tlingit.elmail.co.uk:2000/reference/briefs/chechnya.html] Oil
Consortium Agreement with Azerbaijan. Case Number: 156.
Case Mnemonic: AZERIOIL.Case Name: Azerbaijan Oil Consortium... "On
20 November 1994 a consortium of oil companies signed a contract with
the nation of Azerbaijan. The consortium, led by British
Petroleum, is to invest $8 billion for oil production over a
period of 30 years...Oil production will be phased in in
increasing increments starting in 1996. By the end of 1997, it is
hoped that the peak sustained output of 700,000 barrels per day
will have been reached. In all, there is
believed to be a reserve of 4 billion barrels of oil.
These fields are thought to hold enough oil to be "a bonanza
that rivals Kuwait."... Finally, on October 9 1995, in a show
of compromise, the twelve member consortium agreed to have
2 pipelines. The first will be the Russian route. The 1400
kilometer route will traverse Chechnya ..." Pipelines and Pipedreams:
The Geo-Politics of the Transcaucasus. Pipelines and
Pipedreams: The Geo-Politics of the Transcaucasus By Paul Goble.
Paul Goble is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for...
[http://www.caspcross.com/1.html] GROZNY,
KABUL... BEIJING? Colonel Yevgeni Morozov, military
commentator, Mikhail Frunze Armoured Troops Academy ..."Many
experts in the Russian General Staff are sure that the interests
of the US-Turkey alliance were one of the main causes for the
Chechen war... Furthermore, the Krasnovodsk-Baku-Novorossiisk
communication line, one of the most important in Europe,
passes through Chechnya, while all the projected routes of Caspian
and Kazakhstan oil and Turkmen natural gas, which are to be the
alternative to the Russian route, are pinned on Turkey. The
defeat in Chechnya has moved Russia away from southern resources
and communication lines... Caucasus on Fire... The
Russian military analysts who have access to intelligence
information predict the development of a political crisis in Daghestan...
Northern Ossetia... South Ossetian... Kabardins... Spontaneous
clashes have already begun along the entire northern border of
Georgia"... ...GEOLOGISTS
SAY THERE ARE AT LEAST 200-BILLION
DOLLARS WORTH OF OIL HIDDEN UNDER THE CASPIAN SEA CLOSE TO
AZERBAIJAN'S SHORES, AND FURTHER EXPLORATION COULD EASILY MULTIPLY
THIS AMOUNT. AND WHEN NEW WELLS START PUMPING THE PETROLEUM OUT,
DAILY PRODUCTION, ECONOMISTS PREDICT, COULD QUICKLY REACH 600-THOUSAND
BARRELS, OR 10 PERCENT OF THE DAILY OUTPUT OF THE OIL
INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES... Center for Security Policy [****]:
..."Specifically, Moscow's semi-official representative in
the AIOC consortium, LUKoil, appears to have adopted a nominally
"market-oriented" strategy to defeat the non-Russian
pipeline to Georgia. Since early oil from Azerbaijan is only
projected to involve about 80,000 barrels per day (b/d) --
as a strictly logistical matter -- the full output could initially
be accommodated by an upgraded Russian pipeline across Chechnya
to the Black Sea port of Novorossisk. It will only be as
production begins to peak at some 700,000 b/d in mid-1997
that the additional capacity inherent in the western strand,
planned to run through Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean port
of Ceyhan, will be required"... "who will control the
world's second-largest oil supplies for the industrialized democracies
in the 21st century?"..
http://www.security-policy.org/papers/96-D76.html
http://www.security-policy.org/papers/95-D71.html
http://www.security-policy.org/papers/95-D87.html
http://www.security-policy.org/papers/96-P27.html
http://www.security-policy.org/papers/96-D12.html Bloody
Gamble in Chechnya. Can Moscow translate its "victory"
over Chechnya into pipeline revenue?..."Russia's
interests in controlling Chechnya and the rest of the region lie
in maintaining thesmooth, uninterrupted flow of oil through the Caucasus
pipeline system... Robert Ebel concludes that these routes,
and not Chechen oil itself, were the motivating factor
behind action to suppress Chechen nationalism... Chechnya's
value is not oil, but territory... If Chechnya remains
unsettled, a pipeline routing through Turkey becomes more
attractive to western investors"... Harvard
Report Warns of Threats to Caspian Sea Oil Routes.
Investigation Highlights Regional Destabilization of Chechen War. CRIME WITHOUT
PUNISHMENT - RUSSIA IN THE CAUCASUS by Eric Margolis Russia
and Azerbaijan Sign Pipeline Agreement Jan. 18 (RFE/RL)
..."The Russian pipeline is to transport oil from Azerbaijan
through the separatist republic of Chechnya and on
to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. However, it is
unclear whether a recent escalation of fighting between Russian
troops and Chechen separatist fighters might complicate
these plans"... Russian
Troops May Be Deployed For Border Patrols in Azerbaijan Feb.
15 (FRE/RL) ..."Azerbaijan's President Haidar Aliyev said
yesterday that an agreement may be signed with Moscow allowing
Russian troops to jointly patrol Azerbaijan's borders with Iran
and Turkey. The comment represents a major policy reversal for
Aliyev. Russia has not had any troops in Azerbaijan since 1993.
Until yesterday, Baku had repeatedly insisted that it would not
allow Russian troops to be deployed there. The head of Russia's
border guard, Gen. Andrei Nikolaiev, said after meeting the Azeri
president yesterday that an agreement already has been drafted for
signing by Aliyev and Russian President Boris Yeltsin"... Turkmenistan:
Iran's Oil Minister Interested In Pipeline Projects, 21
August 1996 (RFE/RL) -- ..."The head of the [Iran Oil]
company exploration section, Mehmedi Hosseini, said the company
has signed agreements with Russia and Turkmenistan for offshore
exploration in the Caspian Sea"... Azerbaijan:
Transporting Oil Via Grozny Still A Possibility Baku, 15
August 1996 (RFE/RL) -- ..."Transporting oil via Grozny,
the Chechen capital, to the Russian port of Novorossiisk on
the Black Sea is the optimum oil transport solution...work
is underway to rebuild about 200 kilometers of the Azerbaijani
section of the pipeline. Plans call for it to be commissioned
on December 15 [1996], as provided for in an
inter-governmental oil transit agreement signed by Azerbaijan and
Russia in January, 1996. Aliyev made the statement after his
remarks this week that if the situation in Chechnya
deteriorates, Azerbaijan would accelerate construction of a
pipeline from Baku to the port of Supsa on Georgia's coast"... Russia:
Bidding For Oil Exploration Projects Delayed In Dagestan
27 August 1996 (RFE/RL) -- ..."Moscow has decided to postpone
for at least six months the bidding for the right to develop
several oil deposits in the Caspian Sea"... Russia
Exerts Influence In Caspian Oil Deal Feb. 15 (RFE/RL) -
..."With Russia's own oil production plummeting disastrously,
Moscow is extending its influence over the oil riches of its
Caspian Sea neighbors with the approval of an oil contract by the
Azerbaijani parliament... The state-owned Russian oil giant LUKoil
takes the biggest share in the $1.8 billion deal for development
of the Karabakh oil field in Azeribaijan's territorial waters ...is
believed to hold 85 million metric tonnes of recoverable
crude oil. LUKoil... Both inside Azerbaijan and in the West,
the Karabakh deal is seen as appeasement of Russia, which was
angered over its small share in a separate $8 billion Caspian
sea project announced in September, 1994 and dubbed "the
deal of the century." This latest deal comes at a
time when Russia has admitted that its oil production has
fallen to six million barrels a day, from more than 11 million
barrels a day in 1988. Sergei Panchekhin, first secretary at
the Russian Embassy in Washington, told a New York conference last
week that Russia's oil situation looks "grim yet not
catastrophic." But the IMF and World Bank estimate that an
initial investment of at least $60 billion would be required -
in addition to massive annual investments - for Russian oil
production to return to 1988 levels by the year 2000. Panchekhin
made no secret of Russia's interests in the Black Sea and
Caspian Sea region"... Indeed, Moscow and Washington
are locked in a rivalry over the mineral wealth of the Caspian
..."Russia understands this well and has begun manoeuvring to
secure its place in the future oil bonanza"... Azerbaijan/Russia:
Officials To Discuss Caspian Oil Exploration and Fishing 4
September 1996 (RFE/RL) Turkmenistan:
German Bank Plans Loan; Russia Comments On Caspian 11
September 1996 (RFE/RL) - Germany's Deutsche Bank plans to extend
a $170-million credit to Ashgabat to pay for a new facility a
German company will build at Turkmenistan's Turkmenbashi oil
refinery... Chechen
Attacks Threaten Transneft Pipeline Plan March 13 (RFE/RL)
-- Chechen separatists are targeting the gas and oil
industry's infrastructure in their battle for independence from
Moscow. Twice in the past month, explosions ripped holes in
gas pipelines that run through Chechnya. On Sunday, as
firefighters tried to control blazes that had been burning
at a Grozny oil refinery since last week's battle for the city, another
explosion ripped through a gas pipeline in the Derbent region
of neighboring Dagestan. That pipeline linked Mozdok in North
Ossetia with Azerbaijan... the chairman of Chechnya's pro-Russian
Constitutional Court, Ikhvan Gerikhanov, says Russia
C-A-N-N-O-T rule out any such attacks until Moscow negotiates
a future status for Chechnya. The issue has serious implications
for Moscow and a group of western companies looking to develop the
rich oil fields of the Caspian Sea region.... But about 70
kilometers of the Transneft pipeline runs across northern
Chechnya. It passes directly through Gudermes, as well as Kizlar
in Dagestan. Both towns have seen heavy fighting between Chechen
separatists and Russian forces in the past three
months"..."Roger W. Robinson Jr., president of the
Washington-based consulting firm RWR Inc., predicts that the Caspian
region could be a major oil source for industrialized democracies
in the 21st century"..."Chevron, a western oil
company, estimates that its joint venture to develop the Tenghiz
fields could already be producing 700,000 barrels of crude oil
per day and bring in an eventual 20,000 million dollars in
investment. But without a method to transport the oil to the
international market, Chevron has cut daily production to about
60,000 barrels a day -- less than 10 percent of the projected
output"... Analysis
From Washington - New Players in Caucasus By Paul Goble
Washington, April 5 (RFE/RL) - "Moscow's four-year effort to
exclude outside actors from becoming involved in the
Trans-Caucasus is now failing. As a result, the stakes in all of
that region's conflicts are likely to rise not only for the
countries of the region but also for the outside actors as well.
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian
government has pursued a policy of "frozen
instability" in the Caucasus"... Analysis
From Washington - Moscow's New Pipeline Politics By Paul
Goble Washington, May 14 (RFE/RL) --..."Russia's longstanding
interest in using oil and gas as political weapons to promote the
reintegration of the former Soviet space under Russian
leadership"..."Since the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russian
government has deployed the oil weapon to promote its own
geopolitical interests"... Analysis
From Washington - Profits Financial and Political By Paul
Goble Washington, April 30 (RFE/RL) - "A new pipeline deal
allowing oil from Kazkhstan's Tengiz field to flow to the West
will bring Moscow both financial rewards and important political
benefits"... Conference
On Kazakhstan To Be Crowded By Oil Interests By Stuart
Parrott London, June 5 (RFE/RL) - Kazakhstan's Prime Minsiter
Akezhan Kazhegeldin will head a top-level Kazakh delegation taking
part in a two-day London conference on investment opportunities in
Kazkhstan. The conference - entitled: "Investment Window for
Kazakhstan"... Congress
Complicating Caucasus Conflicts, Official Suggests By K.P.
Foley Washington, July 31 (RFE/RL) --..."The State Department
says Congressional measures that favor Armenia at the expense of
Azerbaijan make diplomacy's work much more difficult. Armenian
Americans are a wealthy, well-organized and powerful lobby in the
U.S. Congress for Armenian interests. Armenian causes enjoy the
support of many influential U.S. politicians, including former
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, who is the likely
Republican Party nominee for president in 1996"... Russia:
Analysis From Washington--Bottlenecks In Russian Economy
(RFE/RL) ..."Russia's increasing dependence on oil and gas
exports to earn hard currency continued to have an enormous
impact on Russian domestic and foreign policies. In the first
instance, it helps to explain Moscow's approach in Chechnya, its
insistence that Chechnya remain part of and fully controlled by
the Russian government. That is because an important oil
pipeline passes through Chechnya, a pipeline Moscow needs
to control in order to project its influence over Central Asia
and the Transcaucasus"... |
