Georgia has long been viewed as an alternative -- indeed, the only alternative -- to trans-Russian transport of Central Asian oil and gas to western markets. To that end, the crown jewel of the movement was the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which saw its opening in May of 2006. Initially, Russia expressed resistance to the BTC pipeline, but viewed it as predictable competition to its near-monopoly on European petroleum delivery, uttering only the occasional diatribe against the project.
Read full story
