Russia and OPEC deepen ties

Oil and conflict have a symbiotic relationship. Last month's armed confrontation between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia highlighted Georgia's vulnerability as a Caspian energy corridor, where the West's prize possession, the $3.6 billion, million-barrel-per-day, 1,092-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, transits. Since the military clash ended, the geostrategic maneuvering between Russia and the United States for Caspian energy reserves has only intensified, and Russia has taken the dispute to a new level by cozying up to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and proposing "extensive cooperation."

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