By Hooman Peimani (6/30/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: Concerned about the political, economic and security consequences of their over-reliance on the Russian and Azerbaijani-Georgian export routes through which they started to export oil in the 1990s, the two Caspian states of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan began their swap deals with Iran in the mid-1990s. Having small oil exports, Uzbekistan followed suit for the same considerations. As the American sanctions on Iran ensured a lack of funding for major pipeline projects to connect their oil resources to Iran’s Persian Gulf oil terminals, the three Central Asian oil exporters had to confine their exports via Iran to a portion of their annual exports, which could be handled through swap deals with Iran without antagonizing Washington.

By Peter Laurens (6/30/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: Several private as well as official commentators have divided Uzbekistan’s privatization history into three stages. The first stage was part of the initial program of macroeconomic reforms in the early 1990s and concentrated on the privatization of housing and small businesses in food, trade and construction. The second stage laid the basis for real estate and stock market transactions.

By Gregory Gleason (6/30/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: Since the establishment of the CIS in 1991 the Eurasian countries have struggled to solve problems of regional cooperation while maintaining national sovereignty. The Soviet collapse severed long-standing ties in trade, transportation, energy, communication, and investment. The division of the physical infrastructure among the post-Soviet states took place relatively quickly.