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Russian Leader to Visit Ashgabat Mid-May

News Briefing Central Asia

Friday, 27 April, 2007

Русский

Russian Leader to Visit Ashgabat Mid-May

Russian president Vladimir Putin will visit Turkmenistan in mid-May to continue talks on the sale and supply of Turkmen gas. Turkmenistan’s dependence on Russian pipelines as a transit route deprives it of the revenue it could earn from selling gas direct to Europe, and the leadership is keen for Russia to sell Turkmen gas to Europe at a reasonable price.

During talks this week, Putin said Russia was ready to “broaden” cooperation on gas, and suggested to Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov that the Central Asia-Centre pipeline could be upgraded, and an eastern branch could be added to the Caspian pipeline, which goes via Kazakstan and Russia and has an annual capacity of 30 billion cubic metres.

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