Cheney Urges Energy Export Routes That Bypass Russia

There is no end to their manipulation, is there.
May 5, 2006

Cheney Urges Energy Export Routes That Bypass Russia

By ILAN GREENBERG and ANDREW E. KRAMER

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, May 5 — A day after chastising Moscow for its use of oil and natural gas as "tools for intimidation and blackmail," Vice President Dick Cheney visited Kazakhstan today to promote export routes that bypass Russia and directly supply the West.

With his comments, Mr. Cheney waded into a messy geopolitical struggle for energy and influence in the countries of the former Soviet Union, rapidly developing into one of the world's largest producing regions.

The United States backs efforts to weaken Russia's grip by building new export routes for the enormous energy reserves of Central Asia, much of which now must pass through Russian territory to reach ports in the Black Sea or pipelines to Europe.

Mr. Cheney's visit to Kazakhstan, on Russia's southern rim, highlighted the balancing of United States interests, trying to counter Russian dominance in energy matters in the region by cozying up to states like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan that have spotty human rights records and limited democracy — and plenty of oil.

"The United States is trying to strike a difficult balance," said Tanya Kostello, an analyst at Eurasia Group, a New York risk consultancy. "It is trying to encourage the regime in Kazakhstan to move toward democracy while maintaining the economic ties."

The Kazakh president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, won a third, six-year term in December 2005, with 91 percent of the vote in an election that international observers said was flawed. Two opposition politicians have been murdered in six months, raising the specter of instability and infighting among the elite.

Kazakhstan produced 1.2 million barrels of oil a day last year but is expected to pump 3 million barrels a day by 2015.

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