Russia's missile launches and the militarization of the Caspian Sea
By Huseyn Aliyev, Emil A. Souleimanov
November 23rd, 2015, The CACI Analyst
In early October, Russia's Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu announced that Russian navy warships based in the Caspian Sea had fired a total of 26 missiles at the positions of the terrorist organization calling itself the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria. The minister claimed that all the 11 targets, located around 1,500 kilometers from the warships, were destroyed over two days. Russian authorities and pro-regime media have considered the strikes a big success. While information soon resurfaced that some cruise missiles had landed on Iranian soil, the fact that the October strike is definite proof of the failed attempts to turn the landlocked water basin into a demilitarized zone has received less attention.
A new boost for the Southern Corridor?
By Stephen Blank
November 20th, 2015, The CACI Analyst
In early October Frontera Corporation announced that it had discovered 3.8 trillion cubic meters (TCM) of gas in Georgia’s Kakheti region. Although the discovery needs to be confirmed and the precise amount of gas determined; this discovery has major potential benefits of both an economic and geopolitical nature for Georgia, Azerbaijan and Europe. But there are lurking dangers as well, especially as the Georgian government recently voiced its intention to sign an agreement with Gazprom for Russian gas and diversify away from its exclusive reliance on Azerbaijan, despite that country’s utter reliability over several years and lack of designs upon Georgia.
- Georgia
- Azerbaijan
- South Caucasus
- Southern Corridor
- Gazprom
- Frontera Corporation
- Georgia Kakheti gas field
- Russia
- TransCaspian Gas Pipeline
- Nabucco Pipeleine
- Southern Gas Corridor
- AGRI interconnector
- Transanatolian pipeline TANAP
- South Ossetia
- Abkhazia
- RussoGeorgian war
- Georgia NATO
- Georgia gas imports
Karachaganak and Kazakhstan's oil policy
By Najia Badykova
November 16th, 2015, The CACI Analyst
Last month, Kazakhstan’s energy minister announced that his ministry would not at present exercise its so-called pre-emption rights to purchase British oil and gas company BG Group’s share in the Karachaganak project. This could be a break in a pattern of acquisitions driven more by economic than political factors. Royal Dutch Shell’s proposed US$ 70 billion buyout of BG Group would give it a major stake in Karachaganak, one of Kazakhstan’s biggest hydrocarbon deposits. Karachaganak accounted for about 15 percent of BG’s total production volume and 9 percent of its US$ 19 billion in revenue in 2014, a BG report has stated. Indeed, it has been a cash cow for BG.
Pluses and minuses of the C5+1 format
By Farkhod Tolipov
November 13th, 2015, The CACI Analyst
During the UN General Assembly on September 27, 2015 in New York, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Kazakhstan’s, Kyrgyzstan’s, Tajikistan’s, Turkmenistan’s and Uzbekistan’s Ministers of Foreign Affairs to set up the new C5+1 format for dialogue between the U.S. and Central Asian states. As a first manifestation of this dialogue platform, Kerry made a Central Asian tour in early November. The C5+1 meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, took place in the context of global geopolitical turbulence that has raised Central Asia’s profile in U.S. global strategy.
Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, "Promise and Peril in the Caucasus," AFPC Insights, March 30, 2023.
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Putin's War In Ukraine and the Crimean War), 19fourtyfive, January 2, 2023
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Russia Needs Its Own Charles de Gaulle, Foreign Policy, July 21, 2022.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Rethinking Greater Central Asia: American and Western Stakes in the Region and How to Advance Them, June 2022
Oped Svante E. Cornell & Albert Barro, With referendum, Kazakh President pushes for reforms, Euractiv, June 3, 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell Russia's Southern Neighbors Take a Stand, The Hill, May 6, 2022.
Silk Road Paper Johan Engvall, Between Bandits and Bureaucrats: 30 Years of Parliamentary Development in Kyrgyzstan, January 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell, No, The War in Ukraine is not about NATO, The Hill, March 9, 2022.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, Kazakhstan’s Crisis Calls for a Central Asia Policy Reboot, The National Interest, January 34, 2022.
Book S. Frederick Starr and Svante E. Cornell, Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, December 2021.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr & Albert Barro, Political and Economic Reforms in Kazakhstan Under President Tokayev, November 2021.