Azernews.Az

Russia is trying to destabilize the situation in Georgia in a bid to grab control over the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) main oil export pipeline that goes through the South Caucasus republic's territory, a prominent US analyst has said.
The former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski's remarks came at the hearing on "Oil, oligarchs and opportunity: energy from Central Asia to Europe" at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday that looked into Russian control over oil and gas reserves and pipelines in the region.
Commenting on Russia's threats to Georgia, Brzezinski said: "In reality, the motive behind these threats has no bearing on any territorial dispute, and they are mostly related to the aspiration to take control over the BTC oil pipe linking Caspian Sea resource assets to the Mediterranean Sea through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. If stability is disrupted in Georgia, Western access to Baku, the Caspian Sea and further will be limited."
The analyst, who focused on Russia's activity in the Eurasia energy market in his address, said Moscow was trying to strengthen its dominance there and availing of all political and economic levers to accomplish the objective, including by suspending energy supplies to European and Baltic states.
"Russia is striving to isolate the Central Asia region from the world economy, in particular, in the energy sector."
Brzezinski spoke in favor of building a number of alternative pipelines in Europe and Asia, including routes from Central Asia to the south through Afghanistan, to increase Western consumption of Central Asian oil and gas resources.
Brzezinski criticized the positions of numerous European leaders. He said Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's nodding to Vladimir Putin knew no limits. For some reasons, the Greek government is also sympathizing with the Russian initiatives in the energy sector. In Hungary, the government is strangely prone to Russia's orders as well as financial incentives although Moscow's stance on the NABUCCO gas export project hurts Budapest's interests, the analyst said.