Highlight
Admiral William Fallon visited Tashkent in January in a first high-level attempt to mend ties since 2005." I disagree. Reuters attributes this to an attempt to promote democracy: "The West has stepped up contacts with Uzbekistan over the past year, hoping dialogue would lead the nation towards more democracy. However, since that break down of relations, in the last year both the West and Karimov have had an increased dialogue. This had led Karimov, the Uzbek President, to expel the Americans from the base in Uzbekistan and move more closely to Russia and China. America and the West widely criticized Uzbekistan for the human rights violations that accompanied the Andizhan massacre in 2005. History of relations Readers will remember that the West had engaged seriously with Uzbekistan during the post 9/11 buildup to the invasion of Afghanistan. Worsening conditions in Afghanistan have led America to once again engage with Uzbekistan.
What happens with Sakhalin 3 will give us more information. Russian political analysts have pointed out that the continuing influence of Putin in the Kremlin will ensure that Medvedev will not be able to alter the balance between Rosneft and Gazprom too much... Today's move suggests that Medvedev is going to be aggressive in the pushing the interests of Gazprom - it is now possible that Gazprom will receive other gas fields without a tender. And Surgutneftegaz, which has remained very loyal to the Kremlin. What about the publicly owned Lukoil. Putin tried to merge Gazprom and Rosneft and failed - will Medvedev have the power to finally do this. Will the Sechin-led Rosneft be downgraded and to be eventually absorbed by the national champion, Gazprom. An interesting question to follow now will be the fate of Rosneft during a Medvedev administration.