CENTRAL ASIA - CAUCASUS ANALYST
Wednesday / January 25, 2006

RUSSIA’S ENERGY GAMBIT: IT WON’T WORK IN AZERBAIJAN
by Fariz Ismailzade

Russian state gas company Gazprom increased its gas delivery prices for Azerbaijan, but unlike in Georgia and Ukraine, where Russia is hoping to gain political victories with the help of energy tools, this policy is doomed to a failure in Azerbaijan. Due to its own sources of revenues and its limited external debt to Russia, Azerbaijan runs little risk of falling into the Kremlin’s energy trap. Extracting extra revenues from oil-rich Azerbaijan has been the only short-term gain for Russia, yet this will come with a expensive price in the long-run.