Putin to visit Central Asia on energy quest
Afp, Moscow
President Vladimir Putin travels to Central Asia Wednesday on a week-long quest to shore up Russian influence over the region's energy reserves amid competition from China and the United States. Putin will first visit the Kazakh capital Astana and then go to Turkmenistan Thursday for a three-way meeting with new Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. He will then return to Kazakhstan for meetings in the Caspian Sea port and oil terminal of Aktau on May 12-15, the Kremlin press service said in a statement. The tour comes as China, the European Union and the United States are also bidding for a bigger role in developing Central Asia's energy reserves and are developing export routes that bypass Russia.
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