Moscow has moved to revive its gas partnership with Turkmenistan and started unprecedented gas imports from Azerbaijan. However, Russia now faces Iranian competition in its gas dealings with both Caspian nations. This month, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom restarts gas imports from Turkmenistan. On December 31,... MORE

Europe is experiencing an exceptionally cold and snowy winter, but at least Russian gas is flowing at full volume through Ukraine and Belarus with no interruptions. Several times in the last few months Moscow has sent warnings on probable complications to European customers, but each... MORE

Russia’s threat to abolish its oil subsidies to Belarus aim not only to punish Minsk for its recent rapprochement with the European Union, but also to put the oil processing and oil transit in Belarus under the control of Russian companies (EDM, January 5).The role... MORE

On January 6 in Dauletabad, Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated a pipeline that runs from that giant Turkmen gas field to Iran. The government of Turkey is also interested in that project; and Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz attending... MORE

Profuse eulogies such as a “milestone in Sino-Kazakh’ relations,” “an epoch-making event” were the most frequently uttered by the Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev after their talks in Astana on December 12. Hu Jintao had every reason to describe his... MORE

Effective January 1, Russia has drastically reduced its traditional subsidy to the oil processing industry in Belarus and, thereby, to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s government. That industry in Belarus is processing Russian crude oil and exporting the derivatives to European Union markets. Some Russian oil producing... MORE

In December Ukrainian officials descended on Washington with one overriding mission –to convince the Obama administration that without the financial help of the IMF, Ukraine might be unable to supply the EU with Russian gas this winter. This badly disguised attempt at blackmail on the... MORE

On December 22 in Ashgabat, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his counterpart in Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov witnessed the signing of documents on the bilateral gas trade and transportation. The documents mark the end of Russia’s punitive, nine-month halt of gas imports from Turkmenistan. The halt... MORE

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin received Croatia’s outgoing president, Stjepan Mesic, in Moscow for a valedictory visit on December 13-14 (Interfax, December 14). The discussions focused on energy issues, reflecting Moscow’s preparations for a breakthrough into the Croatian oil and gas... MORE

The breakthrough on the Central Asia-China gas pipeline (EDM, December 15), as part of Turkmenistan’s policy of gas export diversification, undermines Russia’s position not only in the European gas trade (EDM, December 16), but also on two Asian fronts. These are the negotiations on future... MORE