A Tug-of-War Over Azerbaijan
Richard Weitz, Hudson Institute | September 9, 2008
It is no accident that Dick Cheney visited Azerbaijan last week. ++ Azerbaijan is a core east-west transit country for oil and natural gas. ++ Their pipelines provide energy to Europe, support former Soviet republics, and help keep oil money away from Iran and Russia. ++ Yet, Azerbaijan still wants to maintain good ties with Russia and is not seeking NATO membership. ++ The war in Georgia has made Azerbaijan into “a clear object of rivalry between a resurgent Russia and an energy-hungry block of Western democracies.”
