Observers credited this to the growing use of the railroad by companies in Japan, the United States, South Korea, Europe, and Southeast Asia.17 Grandiose as the Eurasian Railway may seem to outside observers, it is but one component of a larger transportation and energy corridor made up of interlocking railroads, ferries, pipelines, and communication systems, all of which are in various stages of modernization and coordination. Russia, although remaining almost by default the preeminent political-military player in the Caucasus, found its control threatened by the possible devel opment of a Caspian Sea petroleum complex free of its influence.18 Moscow adamantly opposed the export of Azeri oil via any route such as a proposed pipeline through Georgia and Turkey that bypassed Russia. In March 1996, Azerbaijan and Georgia finalized details for the building of their new line from Baku through Georgia to the Black Sea port of Poti and beyond to world markets. Subsequently, Azerbaijan and Romania formally agreed to encourage the developmen t of trade and communication networks between them, including navigation routes, railways, highways, and air traffic. Two months earlier, delegations from seven states of Europe and Asia Kazakstan, China, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Poland, and Estonia vi sited Almaty to explore the potential of the rail corridor and the work being done in Kazakstan to electrify and modernize the Kazakstan-China segment of the railway, improvements designed to increase the speed and volume of shipments.
CIS countries see many advantages in one or another aspect of the Eurasian energy corridor.
Turkmenistan gas can reach Turkey without passing through Russia. Kazakstan sees possible markets for its coal, which Russia now refuses to buy. And Russia values this corridor as the quickest conduit for goods from European Russia to the Caucasus and Central Asia, and for freight from Siberia to the Mediterranean, Africa, and the Middle East. Russia also views the corridor as a way to avoid the impact of protectio nist policies that might be instituted against it by Central Asian states in the future. Interestingly, the fact that the Silk Road opens more world markets to Central Asian and Caucasus nations eager to exercise their own freedom of action was not mentioned.