There’s a very interesting opinion article in the Wall Street Journal today about Europe’s efforts to bring Turkmen gas directly to the EU without first going through Russia, arguing that the new President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov offers the first cautious optimism in decades. If Europe can summon the political will to land this deal, they argue, it “would loosen Moscow’s inordinate power over the Continent’s sources and import routes for natural gas.”

Europe’s Caspian Opportunity By ALEXANDROS PETERSEN and MANJA VIDIC April 9, 2008 Talk of a trans-Caspian pipeline to bring Turkmenistan’s vast natural gas reserves through Azerbaijan to the European Union has gone on for over a decade. So far, it has remained just that – talk – while Russia and China have been busy making actual deals for Turkmen gas.