Turkmenistan, Russia Launch Difficult, But Crucial Gas Talks

摘要

Russia and Turkmenistan are locked in difficult negotiations over the price Russian state Gazprom will pay the Central Asian nation for its gas. The talks come amid wilting gas demand both inside Russia and in its European markets, and their difficulty underscores the cooling relations between the two countries since a controversial pipeline blast in April cut off Turkmen flows to market. Paralleling those cooler relations is a resurgent push from within Turkmenistan and abroad to break Russia's grip on Turkmen gas and open the country's vast reserves to others — at a time when Gazprom's marketing squeeze has severely weakened Moscow's ability to fight back (WGI May6,p5).