Chechnya: More Blood for Oil by Karen Talbot (6/2000, covert action quarterly)
Media analysts and U.S. officials have been nervously trying to assess the "bewildering" policies of Russia’s Acting President Vladimir Putin, especially his actions in Chechnya. As the Russian elections approach in which Putin is favored to win the presidency, he increasingly is being dubbed as a nationalist even though he claims to be defending the territorial integrity and economic base of Russia in the face of escalating incursions on the part of the U.S. and other western countries. That there are grounds for these concerns on the part of the Russians is confirmed by numerous statements and articles in the western press such as the following one by William Pfaff: "The United States also is intervening in the Caspian region to establish an American-dominated oil pipeline route across Azerbaijan and Georgia, cutting out Russia, which is linked to a larger effort to displace Russian influence in the Caucasus and Central Asia."1[...]
On March 17, 1991, 75 percent of the Soviet people voted overwhelmingly to retain the U.S.S.R.; nevertheless, within nine months, the Soviet Union was dissolved as Yeltsin took power.2
Now, those "independent" former republics of the U.S.S.R. are economically and militarily dependent on the U.S., major countries of Western Europe, and pro-western Arab states. Among these are Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. A tiny group of élites have become super-rich proxies for western corporations while the vast majority of the people are indescribably poor.
These three republics are in the region of the Caspian Sea. Because the Caspian Sea is landlocked, the oil and gas have had to be transported mainly by pipeline. There is a major route through Chechnya and other parts of Russia to Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. In fact, the largest network of pipelines in the world had been built during the Soviet era, when the Soviet Union was the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world.3 Its gas and oil fields, refineries and pipelines extended from western Siberia, as well as from the Caspian Sea Basin, to the Black Sea, the Ukraine and the Baltic and East European countries.4
The U.S. wants the Caspian Sea under total U.S. domination. A consortium of 11 western oil companies now controls more than 50 percent of all oil investments in the Caspian Basin—these include Atlantic Richfield, Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, Pennzoil, Phillips Petroleum, Texaco, and British Petroleum-Amoco.5 Therefore, Washington is pursuing other routes, some or all of which ultimately may come to fruition. The intent is to bypass Russia, as with a proposed pipeline through Turkey to the Mediterranean Sea—the Baku-Ceyhan route.
So long as Chechnya has been kept broiling with conflict and war, the pipeline through that region usually has remained non-operative. In early August 1999, Shamil Basayev and other insurgents invaded Dagestan, located between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea.6
The Russian government expressed fears that this was part of a larger conspiracy by the U.S. to detach the countries surrounding the Caspian Sea from Russia.7[.....]
The developments in the Caspian and Trans-Caucasus regions involve a dangerous complex of hostilities fed by growing militarization. "Russia and the U.S.-NATO alliance (and their proxies) may be inching ever closer to a shooting war in Central Asia."9[....]
Many Wars The Caucasus:
Azerbaijan: The oil state of Azerbaijan, on the west shore of the Caspian Sea, is the source of tremendous oil reserves. In order to transport the petroleum to market it must use currently existing pipelines: one running through Georgia to Supsa, which has limited capacity, and another traversing Russia through Chechnya to Novorossiysk. The Azerbaijani leaders along with the western oil companies are going ahead with plans to construct a pipeline through Turkey to Ceyhan, but the expense of that project is causing delays. In order to by-pass Russia, the other alternative is to go through Iran. (The recent parliamentary elections in Iran and the victory of pro-western candidates there may have a major impact on the future of such a pipeline.)
Meanwhile the conflict continues with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave within Azerbaijan currently occupied by Armenian militias with Russia supplying arms to Armenia. On June 17, the Azerbaijani Minister of Defense Safar Abijev asked that "NATO be involved in solving the conflict." Earlier, Azerbaijani spokesmen had floated the idea of a NATO military base in Azerbaijan. They also have held maneuvers in the framework of NATO’s "Partnership for Peace."32 [....]
Countries of Central Asia:[...]
Tajikistan: Tajikistan is made up of many minorities, cultures, clans, and languages, with Tajiks constituting only 65 percent of the population. Since the breakup of the U.S.S.R., the country has suffered from severe economic problems—including a devastating 60 percent drop in GDP, which fuels conflict. In 1992, the Islamic Party of the Resurrection seized power. They were supported from Iran, where the same language, Farsi, is spoken. Later, Kolkhoz farmers rose in armed revolt and brought President Emomali Rakhmonov to power in November 1992, and the Islamic opposition fled to Afghanistan. They returned later, "now sponsored by Pakistan, in neat American uniforms, with Stingers, night vision equipment, Motorola radio stations, and jeeps."39 A bloody civil war followed, causing 200,000 casualties and 500,000 refugees. In June 1997, Rakhmonov conceded one-third of the ministerial offices to the Muslim opposition under a peace treaty which created a coalition government of opposing forces. Rakhmonov again won the presidency in recent elections, part of a three-year-old peace process. Renewed fighting is already erupting. Many of the Islamic fundamentalist factions are backed by forces in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan both of which border on Tajikistan. This border is a major crossing point for Afghan heroin and other contraband. Assassinations and kidnapings are escalating, therefore Rakhmonov requested that Russia reinforce the Russian-led 201st motorized rifle division—a 15,000 to 20,000-strong force.40
Kyrghyzstan: Kyrghyzstan, which borders on China, has not escaped the conflicts fomented in Central Asia. In August 1999, the Uzbek warlord, Juma Namangan, invaded Kyrghyzstan from Tajikistan with 2,000 men. The scenario was identical to Basayev’s invasion of Dagestan. Earlier, Namangan had fought with Islamic rebels in Tajikistan, and then had engaged the Taliban in Afghanistan. His forces consist of Tajik, Afghans, Arabs, and Uzbeks.41
Uzbekistan: Uzbekistan lies west of Kirghizistan in Central Asia. As mentioned above, the Fergana Valley which runs through Uzbekistan promises to be the location of increasing conflicts fomented by the same forces as in other Central Asian countries. Under NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, Uzbek soldiers have trained with U.S. paratroopers in the Fergana Valley and even larger NATO-sponsored military maneuvers have been held with Uzbekistan.
Afghanistan: From 1979 until 1989, a war raged between Soviet troops allied with Afghan government forces against Islamic fundamentalist factions. The fundamentalist fighters were armed by the CIA with Stinger missiles in the largest covert operation in history, additionally financed by the Saudis and Osama Bin Laden. However, after having dislodged the Soviet army, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia supported the Taliban, a fundamentalist Muslim organization operating from Pakistan. In October 1996, the Taliban captured the capital Kabul and later advanced on the north where they now threaten the neighboring countries of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.42
U.S. Role in Central Asia
"Stability is already a thing of the past in the Fergana Valley" (extending through Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan—Central Asia’s largest population center), observed Barnett R. Rubin of the Council of Foreign Relations.
He stated in an interview quoted on the Soros Institute web site:
[T]he international community, and the U.S. in particular, are already engaged in Central Asia and the Fergana Valley, looking for oil and gas, planning pipeline routes, pressuring governments on their economic policies, trying to establish a security structure, trying to cooperate with or displace Russia in many fields including the military one, and so on....
Rubin said that the region from Central Asia through Afghanistan and Pakistan could become "a zone of perpetual violence and conflict like the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, with several ongoing wars that keep spreading.... And in this region there are also nuclear weapons and materials, unlike in Central and East Africa. So the threat...is very serious."43 [....]