Natural Gas and Russia-Turkmenistan Relations

Author(s): Indra Øverland
Editor(s): Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 56
Pages: 9-13
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2009

On 1 January 2009, Russia began paying market prices for natural gas from Turkmenistan. Although the exact price to be paid is not known and market prices is a fuzzy concept, this development comes after years of intractable price quarrels and represents a clear break with the past. This article examines the international context of this turnaround in energy relations between the two countries, as well as the linkages to the most recent Russian-Ukrainian gas crisis, which, not incidentally, also started on 1 January 2009. The article argues that whereas Turkmenistan has remained closely tied to Russia in the energy sector, its broader foreign policy has consistently sought to remove itself from Moscow's sphere of interest. Thus Russian-Turkmenistan relations combine close cooperation and detachment to a degree that is almost paradoxical.

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