Russia's Central Asian Score

摘要

Russia has clearly won the latest round in the three-way fight with Europe and its US backer on the one hand and China on the other for access to gas from the Eastern side of the Caspian Sea.The"declaration"signed late last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin,new Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov,and Kazakhstan leader Nursultan Nazarbayev envisages upgrading the existing Soviet-era gas transportation system from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to Russia,as well as building a new parallel line on a western segment of that system.