Russian Energy Policy in the Caspian Region between 1991-2018

The nations in the Caspian region—notably Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, and to a lesser degree Russia, Iran—are believed to be sitting on what amounts to 10% of the earth's potential oil reserves.  The Caspian seabed’s oil and gas reserves are comparable to entire oil and gas reserves of the United States.  To compete for access to these resources in a pragmatic manner, the major powers as the United States, Russia, and China found it vital to rationalizing their ambitions qualitatively. Accordingly, Russia designed platform of Eurasianism to the Central Asians. This article argues that while pushing the idea of Eurasianism, Russia has had given up its qualitative values for the sake of energy interests and pursued consistent energy policy in the region.