RUSSIA'S NEW M.E. ALLIANCE TARGETS ISRAEL, TURKEY


WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Amid flagging U.S. will, Russia has expanded its sphere of influence in the Middle East in a drive that threatens Israel and Turkey, a new report says.

The report says Moscow is achieving control of major sources of oil and natural gas and is reversing the gains made by the United States since the 1991 Gulf war. The report by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies said Russia is also attempting to control the world price of oil.

The Russian policy focuses on relations with Iran and is meant to contain militant Islam in the nearby Caucasus and Central Asia. Russia has developed Iranian energy reserves and offered advanced weapons and technology in exchange for Teheran's agreement to serve as a route for any proposed energy pipeline from the Caspian.

"Perhaps more than any other issue," said the report, authored by strategist Ilan Berman,"Moscow's concerted quest for domination of the Caspian Basin, and its machinations to this end in the Persian Gulf, illustrate the degree of importance it attaches to the Middle East. Russia's Caspian policy is clear: to project its power over the oil-rich nations of the Caucusus to exclude any strategic presence there, and to impose its own security environment over the area."

The report said Moscow's exploitation of the Caspian could place Russia and its allies as the world's wealthiest oil exporters. Such control could allow Moscow to rival the power of Gulf Arab oil and natural gas producers and set world energy prices.


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