The experts lockstep that the supersession of the president of Turkmenia will either slightly influence gas relations with Russia or will improve them.

The director general of the Centre for current politics of Russia Konstantin Simonov considers that Russia has a good chance to consolidate power on that direction.  “Russia has all the preconditions not to loose in the region owing to poor political and economic positions of the opponents as against in the Ukraine and Kirghizia”, he said.  

According to his words though Saparmurat Niazov was the ally of our country, he was rather an unpredictable person. In this case the change of power means all at once threat and possibility.

“If we are the first to realize what’s going on in Turkmenia and which hydrocarbon reserves it possesses we’ll be able to participate both in digging and transport capacity engineering”, the expert mentioned.   

“Herewith China, the EU and the USA will claim the Turkmenian natural resources. The scope of delivery is extremely considerable and this means too much for Russia”, he concluded.  

The source: Russian Informational Agency “News”, 21 December, 2006.