“Turkmenbasy II beats Putin III”

It is no secret that a serious fight over control over resources and means of supply is going on in the world. And in it, some countries act in the open, while others prefer doing it underhand. But what is done by night appears by day.

A recent event became a good example of that, when on the one hand, Russian Transneft opposed the free access of CIS countries to Russian pipelines, and on the other, delegates of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the stable transit of energy sources, initiated by Turkmenistan. It can be said that the direct collision of interests of both country leaders is taking place here. Director of Energy Programs at NOMOS Center Mykhailo Honchar posted on Facebook after the resolution was approved: “Turkmenbasy II beats Putin III.”

Now, let us look into the detail of what has happened. State-owned company Transneft offered the Russian government to decline participation in the development of the CIS pipeline transit agreement, which is designed to provide the CIS countries with equal rights on using Gazprom’s and Transneft’s transport systems. A corresponding letter signed by the vice president of Transneft Mikhail Barkov was sent to the government, Izvestia writes.

Moreover, the newspaper informs that Russia insists on recognizing energy transport networks in the CIS countries to be an extension of internal Russian networks and be subject to specific rules.

Now everyone should understand that Russia will never agree to tripartite consortiums on managing Ukrainian gas transport system, since it is only interested in being in complete control over it.

And Turkmenistan has a completely different approach to this matter. It initiated a resolution, aimed at the development of international cooperation that would provide safe transportation of energy sources to international markets via pipelines and other means of transportation. Over 70 states became the co-authors of the document.

While presenting the resolution at the UN General Assembly session, Permanent Representative of Turkmenistan to the United Nations Aksoltan Atayeva stressed that provision of universal access to energy sources is a basis for new jobs, ensuring safety, control over the climate change, food provision, and finally, for strengthening of economy and reaching equality.

The Ambassador drew attention to the fact that the resolution’s goals coincided with the UN Secretary-General’s initiative “Sustainable Energy for All.” Atayeva said that effective and safe energy transportation between countries, regions, and continents was one of the main problems of provision access to basic energy sources.

“While being one of the large suppliers of energy resources and the country with world’s fourth largest storage of hydrocarbon resources, Turkmenistan consistently supports the creation of stable and secure systems of international energy supply, creation of patterns and models of cooperation on global energy markets that would correspond to the present-day situation,” Atayeva emphasized.

Former representative of the president of Ukraine for international energy security Bohdan SOKOLOVSKY spoke about the significance of the adopted UN resolution on stable transit of energy sources in his interview to The Day.

“In my opinion, this is very important for Ukraine. At least, right now, when we are Russia’s main gas and partially oil transit partner. I do not know whether we will benefit from this resolution in the future. But I think that as long as we stay a transit country, we will benefit from it. And we shall see about the further prospects.

“I am surprised by Russia’s position, since it declared it even earlier and did not agree to the European policy on transit systems, and recently it stated that energy transport networks of the CIS countries should be considered an extension of Russian internal networks and be subject to specific rules. Russia does what other countries allow it to do. It stands up for its own national interests. It is obvious that it is better for Russia to control transit itself than to pass it over to other states. But this way is definitely not better for those other states, for example, Ukraine.”

You say that Russia does what other countries allow it to do. But Turkmenistan, and its new president in particular, protects its own interest, which is proven by adoption of this UN resolution on the stable transit of energy sources.

“This is quite natural, Turkmenistan knows that it has large gas supply and respectively it thinks there is no reason anyone else should influence its transit facilities when it can manage them itself. That is why this resolution exists, that is why it was initiated and supported by other countries.”

Can it be said that Turkmenbasy II beat Putin III, as some Ukrainian experts say?

“I think so, yes.”

Will it become possible for Ukraine to receive energy sources directly from Turkmenistan thanks to this resolution?

“It would be very hard to implement this physically. Once, we got gas from Turkmenistan de jure. But in reality, Turkmen gas was transported to Russia, and we received Russian gas for Turkmen price. Are current negotiators able to make a similar option real today? It is doubtful. Because the last time we visited Turkmenbasy in 2005, he agreed to this but left all the negotiating to us. So, the ball is definitely in our court. Cooperation of the other party depends on our government’s negotiating ability. And Turkmenistan does not care much whether we settle this. There are no direct routes of gas transport around Russia today. Transit through the Caspian Sea is also a myth. We depend completely on pipes that are located on the territory of Russian Federation. And we have to take it into account.”

Ukraine’s desire to settle this with a positive outcome is evident, and it is confirmed by Yanukovych’s three visits to Turkmenistan. Perhaps, it is Russia’s unwillingness to meet our desire to buy gas from Turkmenistan directly.

“I think that both issues are present here. On the one hand, we should take into consideration that Russia defends its own national interests. Why should Russia agree to cooperate with us easily? It must be interested in this cooperation. In fact, this what the third president emphasized: why would Russia be interested in it. Back then, in 2008, we created two strategic plans that Russia was interested in. But now, I have no idea on what terms the negotiations are carried out, but I can see that there is no productive result whatsoever.”

Usually Russia likes to refer to international law. Will it keep to the resolution on stable transit of energy sources, approved by the UN?

“No, Russia will not refer to this resolution. Russia sees and uses advantageous things, while the unprofitable ones are left unnoticed. This is Russia’s right. That is what they do and that is how they succeed in a way.”