Friendship comes together, but money does not

The republic of Kazakhstan prepared a big surprise for Russia, despite the long friendship between the countries. The United States of America and the republic of Kazakhstan signed a contract on crude deliveries from this former Soviet country to the West. The new agreement was signed in Washington as a results of the negotiations between President George W.Bush and his Kazakhstan colleague, Narsultan Nazarbayev.

The contract stipulates for the construction of the pipeline, which will link Kazakhstan with the western markets via the republic of Georgia and also Turkey. The States supported that project before, which caused Russia’s dissatisfaction, since the pipeline would not go via its territory. Russia miscalculated it, hoping that it was in charge of all energetic questions. It was logic though: the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, the construction of which was over this year, guaranteed the petroleum product deliveries from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan deposits to the port of Novorossiysk via the pipeline, which would be controlled by Russia. This was right - who has the pipe, has the power and therefore – the political influence in the region.

Kazakhstan has recently evinced much interest in the cooperation with the US – not only in the economic sphere. For example, Narsultan Nazarbayev, the President of the republic, stated after the events of September 11 that his country was ready to give its air space and army bases to the anti-terrorist coalition. Such a dubious policy of Kazakhstan’s president was a token to Russia, meaning that the relations between the Russian Federation and its CIS partners were not perfect. Nazarbayev was talking about the intensification of the political and economic contacts between Russia and Kazakhstan at the CIS summit in Moscow. Whereas in Washington Nazarbayev was “singing the praises” to the States, he was about ready to join NATO. The American representatives clarified that the goal of the signed contract was to help Kazakhstan to develop its rich crude resources according to the international standards.

“Kazakhstan has the potential to become the second largest crude exporter in the world,” – a US Department of State official said. The official was talking about the Kashagan deposit that allegedly has more crude, than the in entire USA.

This agreement between Kazakhstan and the USA was a serious blow to Russia – in terms of its economic and geopolitical interests in the region. The talks about the free competition and the help to the indigent are for fools. Well, thank you, Mr. Nazarbayev. Next time we are going to be wiser.

Dmitry Litvinovich PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov

On the photo: Narsultan Nazarbayev