The heads of Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan—Vladimir Putin, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov—met in Turkmenistan May 12 and formalized a decision to build a new gas pipeline along the coast of the Caspian Sea. The new pipeline will carry gas from Central Asia to global markets through Russian territory, shoring up Moscow's position as a main supplier of Europe's energy needs. The project may mean the end of Western plans to build a trans-Caspian pipeline bypassing Russian territory. (New Europe, May 18)

See our last posts on Russia, the regional pipeline wars and the Great Game for Central Asia.