Azerbaijan’s independent newspaper does not rule out a “Russian trace” in the explosion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline near the Turkish town of Erzincan on 5 August adding that Russia has always said that the BTC is not a secure route for exporting oil to world markets.
The paper also points to traditional “warm relations” between Russian intelligence service and Kurdish organizations and reminds that immediately after the blast Russian energy route Baku – Novorossiysk pipeline was put into work.
Another opposition daily Azadliq believes that Russia and South Ossetian separatists are involved in the explosion of the pipeline quoting Georgian pundits as saying that a day before the incident, the de facto South Ossetian president’s envoy to Russia, Dmitriy Medoyev, voiced threats to explode the pipeline.
Commissioned in 2006, 1,767-km-long BTC pipeline is capable of transporting 1m barrels of oil per day.
Originally published by Zerkalo, Baku, in Russian 8 Aug 08, p 3; Azadliq, Baku in Azeri 8 Aug 08 p 6.
(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Central Asia. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Comments