Mr Cheney goes to Georgia

The US-backed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline passes through Georgian territory and letting Russia dictate events in Georgia has a definite implication in terms of energy security, given the fierce pipeline geopolitics in the Eurasian landmass, Europe’s heavy energy dependency on Russia and Moscow’s willingness to rely on the energy card for security bargaining with Europe.

This alone may explain why the European Union, which has been divided over a response to the Georgian crisis, has largely consented to the US’s muscular reaction. The issue has now turned into a defining moment of the post-Cold War era because of its broader implications.
From Russia’s point of view, carving out Georgia into separate territories is the proper antidote to NATO’s planned expansion, to offset the US’s growing encroachment, and a clear warning to neighboring states, such as Azerbaijan and Ukraine, to refrain from cozying up to US or NATO.

Russia is now devoting more energy to building up both the CIS network and the implementation of its collective security principle, and equally important, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which had a summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, this week (attended by Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad as an observer).

Should the SCO, which comprises China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, consent to Iran’s quest for full membership, then Russia may reciprocate the US’s unwanted encroachment into its backyard by gaining a foothold in the US’s traditional turf, the oil-prized Persian Gulf, via Iran.

With the Russians building a power plant in Bushehr in Iran and Russian oil and gas companies energetically involved in Iran’s energy sector, the door has already been opened for a future security dimension to such a Russian presence in the Persian Gulf.

Asia Times