Energy-rich Caspian becomes center of U.S.-Russia power struggle

[rodeodance]

Source: iht



Energy-rich Caspian becomes center of U.S.-Russia power struggle

By Judy Dempsey
Published: October 17, 2007



The Caspian, one of the world's largest enclosed bodies of water, has become the center of a new power game involving the United States and Russia as well as its bordering countries, including Iran, over who should control the vast energy reserves under its depths.

The Caspian's status has been in dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Over the past few years, the United States has been trying to establish alternative energy routes that would weaken the regional dominance of Russia and Iran, while Russia has sought to control the transportation routes across these waters.

When Vice President Dick Cheney visited Kazakhstan last year, he used the occasion to launch a fierce attack against President Vladimir Putin of Russia, accusing him of rolling back democracy and suppressing human rights. By delivering the speech in Kazakhstan, the Bush administration was staking out U.S. influence in the region, where it has stepped up plans to build a pipeline that would bypass Iran and Russia.


On Tuesday, it was Putin's turn to put down his marker. On the first visit in 64 years by a Kremlin leader to Tehran, he met his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose country faces a fresh round of sanctions by the United Nations if it does not comply with Security Council demands for reining in its nuclear program.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/17/business/caspian.php

[rodeodance]

1. BERLIN: Is the Caspian a sea or a lake?

In addition to Iran and Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan also have Caspian coastlines. And while all of them want a large stake in the oil reserves, and to use of the sea for transportation, none of them have been able to agree on the status of the coveted waters.

Russia and Iran, historically, have agreed that the sea was a lake and that it should be shared equally between the two of them.

[Andy Canuck]

4. the caspian is a sea

[madeline_con]

2. That's rich, Cheney bitching at Putin about human rights. n/t

[saigon68]

7. Yes, the Gangster War Criminal, calls the Kettle Black

Cheney is a Gangster and a Hooligan on the world stage.

His influence and policies have killed hundreds of thousands of children.

[cosmicdot]

3. from 1999

the Council on Foreign Relations

http://web.archive.org/web/20021108154512/http://treemedia.com/cfr/
http://web.archive.org/web/20021108154512/http://treemedia.com/cfr/

of course, it may explain all the bigwigs at, of all places,
the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce

http://www.usacc.org/content.php?type=page&id=2&chi=5&par=3

http://web.archive.org/web/20030122153300/

http://web.archive.org/web/20030122153300/http://treemedia.com/cfr/library/geopolitics/jaffemaps.html

[DavidDvorkin]

5. The Great Game again

But this time, the Russians might win.

[tom_paine]

10. The Grand Chessboard of the 1890s.

And it seems like Bushler has a hard-on for DubyaDubyaThree.

[TrogL]

6. That's why US forces (and Canadian, unfortunately) are still in Afghanistan

(wrong country)

It's all for a pipeline.

[Megahurtz]

8. Why Doesn't The U.S.

just get their fucking nose out of the other side of the World???:wtf:
They're not anywhere near the Caspian Sea therefore should have no rights to it.

[Javaman]

9. This is what it's always been about.

A pipeline from Baku to the Mediterranean.

google chaney+baku+pipeline you will get all the answers you will ever need and then some.