Turkmenistan: Sechin Prepares Path for Medvedev Visit

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will visit Turkmenistan on December 22. The trip will presumably aim to resolve long-standing energy export differences between Moscow and Ashgabat.

On December 15, just before he left for Japan, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov met Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin in Ashgabat and held a telephone conversation with Medvedev, the news agency CA-News.org reported on December 17.

The heads of state discussed energy, industrial and military-technical issues. Sechin, who is responsible for the Russian energy sector, reportedly spoke about "ways of promoting the most important joint projects aimed at the intensification of partnership in the energy sector, which is of strategic importance for both countries."

Turkmen exports of gas to Russia have stalled since an explosion on a key export pipeline in April. Protracted negotiations have so far failed to break the export impasse.