On 20-25 April, Turkmen energy minister Baimyrat Khodzamuhammedov visited Islamabad where he took part in the 10th meeting of steering committee of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. Apart from him, the meeting gathered Indian, Pakistani and Afghan officials. Few days later, on April 28th Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov traveled to Kabul (first time in independent […]

Several days ago, I wrote a post entitled “Forest in the desert”, in which I spoke negatively about the project of planting trees around Ashgabat that has been implemented for years by the Turkmen authorities. My post was criticized by many commentators and I was accused of constant “complaining and bragging”.
So I decided to […]

On 11 March Gazprom website published the following information:
The Gazprom Headquarters today hosted a working meeting of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, Uzakbai Karabalin, President of KazMunaiGaz, Nurmmukhamad Akhmedov, Chairman of the Management Committee of Uzbekneftegaz and Yagshigeldy Kakaev, Chairman of Turkmengaz. The meeting addressed the outlook for cooperation in […]

The author of the Nähili.com blog I have already written about devoted one of his posts to the problem of the Russian language in Turkmenistan. He wonders why many Turkmen use the Russian rather than their native Turkmen language in their everyday life. Indeed, it was one of the things that struck me when […]

I’ll start by quoting news that I read today in the morning on the Turkmenistan.ru website. I must confess that I was dumbfounded after reading it. I didn’t know whether I should start laughing or crying first. Here’s a quote from the article:
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov was awarded an international order “For Outstanding Achievements […]

Former Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov was not known for his love of external foreign influences, and his reign saw the republic isolated not only politically but also increasingly culturally, as Turkmenbashi sought to distill the essence of Turkmen-ness.
As part of this process, in April 2001 Niyazov banned foreign opera and ballet. He justified his […]

Recently, I have written about the only English language Turkmen blog. Today, I would like to continue the subject of the Internet. For some time now, I have been observing the News Central Asia (NCA) website. Its “About Us” section informs us that its authors intend to deal with the Greater Central Asia region, […]

One of the most striking things about Turkmenistan is the difference between the older and the younger generation. Unlike in Western countries, it is not so much the way they behave, dress or spend free time that distinguishes the young from the old ones. Naturally, such differences are visible, but not as much as […]

Epigraph:
“Nobody likes oil corporations but eveybody would love to be hired by them…”
Roman Abramovich
  
“Chevron” - one of the largest oil companies in the world came up with this interesting statement:
The fact is, the vast majority of countries rely on the few energy-producing nations that won the geological lottery, blessing them with abundant hydrocarbons. And […]

Peter comments Ben’s post on neweurasia.net Homebase and highlights real economic and political roots of “The Great Battle for Central Asia Gas”.
Russophobic and Western-centric logic invariably skews analysis of this entire issue.
The grotesque caricature of Russia’s energy resource export policy exemplified by Josh’s post at Registan is typical. He maintains, with little by way […]