For a payment of $60 million, and no doubt a delivery of desperately needed vowels, the Manas airbase at Kyrgyzstan will be re-opened to US military traffic to Afghanistan.
The new deal limits transport to only non-military goods though.
Category: Central Asia
Russia Gains Control of Turkomen Gas Exports
This development cements Gazprom’s position as the 800 lb gorilla in the world natural gas market.
It looks like they will sign similar projects with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
An interesting note is that the deals appear not to be particularly good for Gazprom, it’s unlikely that they will make much money out of them, but what it does do is likely kill a gas pipeline on a southern route through Turkey, which the US had been pushing to minimize Russian influence in Europe.