And So It Begins

Over the weekend, China's Hu Jintao was in Turkmenistan to inaugurate a 1,139-mile long gas pipeline to Uzbekistan. After watching Europe sit on its hands, China is buying Central Asia like it’s the home stretch in Monopoly.

Reuters: “In the windswept settlement of Saman-Tepe, festooned with Chinese and Central Asian flags, officials cheered and hugged after the four presidents symbolically turned the pipeline tap, injecting the first gas with a loud humming noise.”

By 2013, the pipeline will reach its full capacity of 40 bcm a year – one of several projects which have recently established China as Central Asia's biggest non-Russian Export market.

Suddenly, Russian’s properties on the other side of the board (the CIS, CSTO, the CES and EurAsEC) don’t look so hot. Oh, and how's Baltic Avenue working out for you, Europe?