AI
Thursday, August 18, 2005 10:06:32 PM
Look at this battle shaping up. This is threatening to Russia, the littoral Caspian states and China, the entire area will be held hostage. Many of the following countries are SCO. Just a feeling, I think they will play along with the U.S. and switch to Russia and China whom they perceive as less demanding when the bombs start flying.
The Pentagon is to tighten control over Caspian and Russia will include the Caspian and Barents Seas in its national system of global control in the next two years, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said. So you ask who will have control, Russia or the U.S.?
#msg-7142644
Moscow is getting ready for the great war in Northern Caucasus.
By the beginning of 2005 Moscow has concentrated 300 000 soldiers in Caucasus . Part of them, more than 100 000 (according to some data up to 200 000), are directly in the Chechen Republic .
In the beginning of 2006 the brigades and battalions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Northern Caucasus will be replaced with regiments and divisions. Instead of battalions with 600 trunks there will be regiments with 2000. Besides in Dagestan and Karachaevo - Circassia will be based 2 additional mountain brigades. Officially they will serve supposedly " for the protection of borders ". But actually the task of the mountain brigade in Karachaevo - Circassia consists in protection of the Black sea coast against attacks of mojaheds, and the brigade in Dagestan will defend the coast of Caspian sea from attacks of mojaheds from the Chechen Republic .
#msg-7395990
Meanwhile Bush is backing the Chechens.
#msg-4307815
On April 11, John J Fialka of the Wall Street Journal revealed that the US Department of Defense will spend $100 million over the next few years to establish the "Caspian Guard", a network of police forces and special operations units "that can respond to various emergencies, including attacks on oil facilities". Russia is also expanding its Caspian Fleet, as it too presses its claims to offshore fields in the region. Under such circumstances, it is all too easy to imagine how a minor confrontation could erupt into something much more serious, involving the US, Russia, Iran, and other countries.
#msg-6368606
Russia has proposed a Caspian flotilla which would be a task group of the littoral states’ ships, and as such billed as a regional force.
#msg-7000730
If Russia is forced into a war of any length in the Northern Caucasus and the U.S. sits on the sidelines there is the potential for Moscow to become sufficiently weakened and the U.S. will have an opportunity to take over the Caspian. Putin has to go in hot and heavy and then turn to the problem of the U.S. presence in Russia’s near abroad. It is imperative that China step in to help Russia and they have indicated they will do so.
Azerbaijan again is the key to taking over Iran.
What a mess!
-Am
Pentagon to tighten control over Caspian
18/08/2005 11:52
The US Department of Defense will oversee a $130 million effort over the next six years to bolster security in the Caspian Sea region, US military officials said. The United States, by implementing the program called the Caspian Guard Initiative focusing on Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, the two most Western-leaning countries in the area,
aims to improve patrol services in the Caspian, ensure regional border security, prevent the flow of terrorists, arms and drugs, and promote overall stability, said lieutenant-colonel Scott Sweetser, who assisted in coordinating the program for the US European Command.
"In 2004, special units of the European Command started training members of Azeri navy on intercepting terror and trafficking of drugs and weaponry through the Caspian as part of the Caspian Guard program. Future training will include border patrol."
The US hopes to build command-and-control centers as well as centers directing air and maritime security operations in both countries, Sweetser told US Stars and Stripes military newspaper.
Sweetser said the United States also built an interim maritime command and control center in Baku which it hopes to expand.
Azerbaijan is of particular interest to the United States, as it borders on Russia in the north, with the nearby Chechnya region, and Iran to the south, which makes it a potential transit territory for terrorists, he said.
"Also important are energy projects on transportation of hydrocarbons from Baku to Tbilisi and Turkey. Protection of natural resources is therefore an integral part of the Caspian Guard program as well."
Sweetser did not rule out that the Caspian Guard may be expanded in the coming years.
The 'expansion' probably implies drawing Turkmenistan to the program, as the other two Caspian littoral states - Russia and Iran - are highly unlikely to join it. Russia is the United States' rival for influence in the region, while Iran is seen by the US as a country with nuclear and terror threat.
The interests of the United States in the region develop as Azerbaijan asserts itself as a key player in reducing US dependence on Middle East oil. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export pipeline launched this year is considered crucial in this respect, according to news reports.
http://www.azernews.net/view.php?d=6909
The Pentagon is to tighten control over Caspian and Russia will include the Caspian and Barents Seas in its national system of global control in the next two years, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said. So you ask who will have control, Russia or the U.S.?
#msg-7142644
Moscow is getting ready for the great war in Northern Caucasus.
By the beginning of 2005 Moscow has concentrated 300 000 soldiers in Caucasus . Part of them, more than 100 000 (according to some data up to 200 000), are directly in the Chechen Republic .
In the beginning of 2006 the brigades and battalions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Northern Caucasus will be replaced with regiments and divisions. Instead of battalions with 600 trunks there will be regiments with 2000. Besides in Dagestan and Karachaevo - Circassia will be based 2 additional mountain brigades. Officially they will serve supposedly " for the protection of borders ". But actually the task of the mountain brigade in Karachaevo - Circassia consists in protection of the Black sea coast against attacks of mojaheds, and the brigade in Dagestan will defend the coast of Caspian sea from attacks of mojaheds from the Chechen Republic .
#msg-7395990
Meanwhile Bush is backing the Chechens.
#msg-4307815
On April 11, John J Fialka of the Wall Street Journal revealed that the US Department of Defense will spend $100 million over the next few years to establish the "Caspian Guard", a network of police forces and special operations units "that can respond to various emergencies, including attacks on oil facilities". Russia is also expanding its Caspian Fleet, as it too presses its claims to offshore fields in the region. Under such circumstances, it is all too easy to imagine how a minor confrontation could erupt into something much more serious, involving the US, Russia, Iran, and other countries.
#msg-6368606
Russia has proposed a Caspian flotilla which would be a task group of the littoral states’ ships, and as such billed as a regional force.
#msg-7000730
If Russia is forced into a war of any length in the Northern Caucasus and the U.S. sits on the sidelines there is the potential for Moscow to become sufficiently weakened and the U.S. will have an opportunity to take over the Caspian. Putin has to go in hot and heavy and then turn to the problem of the U.S. presence in Russia’s near abroad. It is imperative that China step in to help Russia and they have indicated they will do so.
Azerbaijan again is the key to taking over Iran.
What a mess!
-Am
Pentagon to tighten control over Caspian
18/08/2005 11:52
The US Department of Defense will oversee a $130 million effort over the next six years to bolster security in the Caspian Sea region, US military officials said. The United States, by implementing the program called the Caspian Guard Initiative focusing on Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, the two most Western-leaning countries in the area,
aims to improve patrol services in the Caspian, ensure regional border security, prevent the flow of terrorists, arms and drugs, and promote overall stability, said lieutenant-colonel Scott Sweetser, who assisted in coordinating the program for the US European Command.
"In 2004, special units of the European Command started training members of Azeri navy on intercepting terror and trafficking of drugs and weaponry through the Caspian as part of the Caspian Guard program. Future training will include border patrol."
The US hopes to build command-and-control centers as well as centers directing air and maritime security operations in both countries, Sweetser told US Stars and Stripes military newspaper.
Sweetser said the United States also built an interim maritime command and control center in Baku which it hopes to expand.
Azerbaijan is of particular interest to the United States, as it borders on Russia in the north, with the nearby Chechnya region, and Iran to the south, which makes it a potential transit territory for terrorists, he said.
"Also important are energy projects on transportation of hydrocarbons from Baku to Tbilisi and Turkey. Protection of natural resources is therefore an integral part of the Caspian Guard program as well."
Sweetser did not rule out that the Caspian Guard may be expanded in the coming years.
The 'expansion' probably implies drawing Turkmenistan to the program, as the other two Caspian littoral states - Russia and Iran - are highly unlikely to join it. Russia is the United States' rival for influence in the region, while Iran is seen by the US as a country with nuclear and terror threat.
The interests of the United States in the region develop as Azerbaijan asserts itself as a key player in reducing US dependence on Middle East oil. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export pipeline launched this year is considered crucial in this respect, according to news reports.
http://www.azernews.net/view.php?d=6909
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