Energy News // 1 decade ago
Analysis: Central Asian energy in 2008
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The noted Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes once wrote, “Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States.” Substitute “Central Asia” for “Mexico” and “Russia” for the “United States,” and one begins to have an idea of the energy exports problems facing Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. For the three easternmost former Soviet “Stan” republics, 2008 has been a year of stress and possibility. Given their geographic isolation, despite their independence, all three nations have been forced to acknowledge the reality of Russia’s ongoing regional influence, despite the collapse of communism in 1991.