The fight on the influence in the Caspian Sea Region continues, and the number of states involved in this fight also increases. Oil, gas and their transportation routes have become the key objective of the fight.

The focus is given to a poor sandy country Turkmenistan with its huge natural gas resources.

In the middle of May 2007 the Energy Forum of Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan was held in Krakow. N.Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, rich with energy resources, did not chow up, although promised to. During the same time the Russian president V.Putin has organized an alternative event in Central Asia.

The decision of the Russian gas monopolistic company Gazprom on termination of supply of the natural gas to Ukraine at the beginning of 2006, has been evaluated by the European Union as an attempt to form a policy of the EU favorable to Moscow by attracting energy resources.

At the beginning of the year Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneioffered the Government of Russia to cooperate in the sphere of gas extraction and supply, and establishment of a cartel similar to OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries).  This wasn’t good news, especially for the EU, since its dependence on import of energy sources comprises about 50 per cent.

According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, the war between Minsk and Moscow over oil prices, which has begun at the beginning of this year, encouraged policy makers of Transneft to submit, just at the beginning of January, proposals to the Ministry of Industry and Energy on construction of a 2nd phase of the Baltic Pipeline System (BPS-2), bypassing Belarus and Poland.

Russia’s attention to Iran can be explained by its geopolitical ambitions, however Iran‘s nuclear ambitions are threatening the world‘s community. The United States and United Nations Security Council require Iran to terminate the uranium enrichment program. Although Russia does not openly demonstrate the support of Iran, it tries to soften the tone of negotiations.

Nordstream pipeline from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea is a Project predetermined by the rational and irrational assumptions and intentions.

Taking into account the amount of hazardous wastes buried in the Baltic Sea, from the point of view of ecology Nordstream is quite a dangerous project.

Administrative regimes of nearly all the oil-rich states, are non-democratic, and the level of their authoritarianism differs subject to oil prices.  For instance, in 1997 Iran invited Israel and other states to participate in the civilization dialogue (then the price of oil was about 16 US$ a barrel), and in 2005 it denied the fact of holocaust and publicly declared that Israel might be swept out of existence (60 US$ a barrel).

Energy wars of Russia with Ukraine and Belarus raise reasoned doubts of the Europeans on the status of Russia as a reliable EU energy partner. Therefore it is important to understand reasons of the Russian actions as well as what the EU should do in order to retain its energy security.

The crisis of the brotherly relations between Minsk and Moscow is especially expressive in its dynamics.  After all Moscow started to talk about the market economy nuances in spring of the last year after an ordinary A. Lukashenka’s victory in the presidential elections, when reminiscences about the gas war with Ukraine were still alive.

The desire of the Russian concern Gazprom to build its activity on market relations when dealing even with the CIS neighbors, can backfire on Russia itself. A few months ago it did not seem that Azerbaijan will experience the same fate as Ukraine and Belarus which have undergone economic and political pressing of Russia, and that Ilcham Aliyjev will also start talking about the senselessness of the CIS, as was the case with Jushchenko and Saakashvili.

For effective complex defence of Latvia, the establishment of a permanent division of the National Armed Forces has started in Latgale, reported the official website of the Ministry of Defence.

On 13 January a concert "Together to the victory" was held in Lithuania, where the audience decided to support Ukraine's defence and donated 110 thousand Euros.

Alexander Lukashenko on 9 January signed a decree № 8 "On the establishment of visa-free entry and exit of foreign nationals." The document establishes visa-free entry to Belarus for a period not exceeding 5 days at the entrance through the checkpoint "National Airport Minsk" for citizens of 80 countries, - reported the press service of the President of Belarus.