naturalfeature:caspian sea

The Giant Soviet Pipeline System That’s Full of Tainted Crude - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-26/the-giant-soviet-pipeline-system-that-s-full-of-tainted-crude

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i8zLMU.ZW8W0/v1/1200x767.jpg

Russia’s giant Soviet-era oil pipeline is a vital piece of Europe’s energy infrastructure, carrying crude to refineries across the region. This week it’s been hit by probably the biggest crisis in its 55-year history: both branches of the #Druzhba pipeline have been closed due to the presence of contaminated crude oil that can cause serious damage to refineries.

What is the Druzhba pipeline?
The Druzhba, or Friendship, pipeline system is a Soviet-era behemoth, originally designed to carry crude from the USSR to allied countries in eastern Europe. The line starts at Almetyevsk in the Republic of Tatarstan, a town that was founded in 1953 as an oil-processing center for the giant Romashkino oil field, then the mainstay of the Soviet oil industry. It’s now also a major pipeline junction, where conduits from the Volga-Urals region, West Siberia and the Caspian Sea meet.

The Druzhba pipeline carries oil westwards to Mozyr in Belarus, where it splits into two branches. One continues westwards across Poland and into Germany. It delivers crude to refineries at Plock and Gdansk in Poland and Schwedt and Leuna in Germany. A southern branch crosses Ukraine to Uzhgorod on the border with the Slovak Republic, where it again splits. One leg delivers crude to the Szazhalombatta refinery near Budapest in Hungary. The other supplies refineries in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The total length of the line, including all its branches, is around 5,500 kilometers (3,420 miles).

Construction of the system began in 1960 and the line was put into operation in October 1964.

A spur line from Unecha in Russia that crossed Belarus to an export terminal on the Baltic Sea at Ventspils in Latvia was completed in 1968, but was closed in 2002 after Russia halted crude exports through Latvia, following the construction of its own Baltic export terminal at Primorsk. A new spur line from Unecha, bypassing Belarus to a second Russian Baltic export terminal at Ust-Luga, came into operation in March 2012.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/o7fkea4dbuz8y64/20190427_Drujba.png

The importance of Druzhba
Druzhba can carry between 1.2 million and 1.4 million barrels of crude a day, according to the International Association of Oil Transporters, with the possibility of boosting that to around 2 million barrels. It forms a vital source of supply for the refineries along its route in Poland, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

During 2018, the Druzhba network was used to deliver about 1 million barrels a day of Russian crude to those five countries, with a further 500,000 barrels a day pumped to Ust-Luga for export by sea.

While most of the refineries along its length can source at least some of their crude requirements via other routes, Druzhba has provided most of their feedstock and most were designed specifically to process the Russian Urals crude delivered through the pipeline.

The #contamination
Europe’s oil refineries stopped accepting piped deliveries of Urals crude from Russia this week after flows were found to be contaminated with abnormally high levels of organic chlorides that, when refined, become hydrochloric acid that can damage the plants.

The issue was first raised by Belarus and has also affected supplies from the Russian port of Ust-Luga, according to a person familiar with the matter.

There are no signs that shipments from Novorossiysk or Primorsk, two other Russian tanker-loading facilities, have been disrupted.

Russia’s government has blamed a private storage terminal in the center of the country for the problem. It will now take two weeks to ensure uncontaminated crude is flowing along the entire length of the pipeline.

The millions of barrels tainted crude will need to blended with larger quantities of unblemished oil to get the impurities down to safe levels, a task that might some weeks or months.

Organic chlorides are generally not present in crude oils, but are used to dissolve wax and during cleaning operations at production sites, pipelines or tanks.

#drujba #pipelines #oléoducs

Nouveau système de positionnement dynamique (et de détection…)
Wärtsilä Tests World’s First ‘Targetless’ DP Laser Sensor – gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/wartsila-tests-worlds-first-targetless-dp-laser-sensor

https://gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/SceneScan-system-wartsila.jpg

Finnish technology group Wärtsilä says it has successfully tested what it says is the world’s first ‘targetless’ dynamic positioning (DP) laser sensor on board an offshore support vessel in the Caspian Sea.

Unlike traditional DP systems, the state-of-the-art technology, known as the SceneScan system, requires no reflector target to be deployed, thereby increasing both safety and operational uptime, according to Wärtsilä. The technology has been developed by Guidance Marine, a Wärtsilä company.

The sea trials were carried out onboard the Topaz Citadel, a vessel owned by Topaz Energy and Marine, a leading international offshore support vessel company. The SceneScan was connected to a Wärtsilä DP system, with which the vessel was already fitted.

Here’s how Wärtsilä describes the SceneScan system:
The SceneScan system is a high accuracy rotating laser sensor that provides positional information to allow automated approach and/or station keeping relative to a structure or vessel. It is designed to be straightforward to operate, and it provides tracking information relative to natural or man-made structures within the sensor field of view. It tracks by matching its current observation of the scene against a map generated from previous observations of the scene.

Wärtsilä says that following a 90-day test period, Topaz has now indicated that it will keep the system as installed on the Topaz Citadel, and that it will begin a phased roll-out to additional vessels. The initial order includes upgrading existing DP sensor systems onboard four of the company’s vessels.

“The testing and evaluation was carried out and proven under actual DP operations with offshore platforms in the Caspian Sea. The positive feedback provides further evidence of the efficiency and accuracy of the SceneScan system. This is fully in line with Wärtsilä’s Smart Marine vision, for which enhanced vessel safety is a key pillar,” says Andrew Stead, Head of Business Development, Guidance Marine.

“The installation onboard the Topaz Citadel was seamless, and the technical support that was provided by Wärtsilä throughout the testing period successfully determined the system’s overall effectiveness. We have no doubt that the SceneScan system will add considerable value to the DP operations of our versatile and digitised fleet.” says Paul Jarkiewicz, Operations Director at Topaz Energy and Marine.

Why the West Needs #Azerbaijan – Foreign Policy
▻http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/05/28/why-the-west-needs-azerbaijan

https://foreignpolicymag.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/gettyimages-478734658.jpg

There are only three ways for energy and trade to flow overland between Asia and Europe: through Iran, through Russia, and through Azerbaijan. With relations between the West, Moscow, and Tehran in tatters, that leaves onlyone viable route for hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of trade: through the tiny Caspian Sea nation of Azerbaijan.

When you factor in Armenia’s occupation of almost one-fifth of Azerbaijan’s territory, all that is left is a narrow 60-mile-wide chokepoint for trade. We call this trade chokepoint the " #Ganja_Gap ” — named after Azerbaijan’s second largest city, Ganja, which sits in the middle of this narrow passage. And right now, the Russians hold enough influence over Azerbaijan’s rival neighbor Armenia to potentially reignite the bloody #Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of the late 1980s and early 1990s — giving them a dangerous opportunity to threaten the “Gap” itself.
[…]
It is not just oil and gas pipelines that connect Europe with the heart of Asia. Fiber-optic cables linking Western Europe with the Caspian region also pass through the Ganja Gap. The second-longest European motorway, the E60, which connects Brest, France, on the Atlantic coast with Irkeshtam, Kyrgyzstan, on the Chinese border, passes through the city of Ganja, as does the east-west rail link in the South Caucasus, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. These are set to become potentially vital connections.

The ongoing campaign in Afghanistan has also proven how important the Ganja Gap is for resupplying U.S. and NATO troops. At the peak of the war, more than one-third of U.S. nonlethal military supplies such as fuel, food, and clothing passed through the Ganja Gap either overland or in the air.

#Turkmenistan seeks to tap into East-West cargo flows with new seaport | Agricultural Commodities | Reuters
▻https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL8N1S92X2

Turkmenistan on Wednesday opened a new $1.5 billion cargo and passenger seaport on the Caspian Sea aiming to boost its export revenues by handling shipping traffic between Asia and Europe.

The Central Asian country’s main source of hard currency is its gas exports, which took a hit when Russia, once its main customer, stopped all purchases in 2016 after a pricing dispute.

The port, in the city of #Turkmenbashi, will more than triple Turkmenistan’s cargo handling capacity to 25-26 million tonnes a year, the government has said.

Speaking before the official opening ceremony, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said Ashgabat was ready to discuss the use of the seaport with its landlocked neighbours, a reference to Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

Turkmenistan already has a railway link with China through neighbouring Kazakhstan and the new port could help Ashgabat win a slice of cargo flows moving between China, the Middle East and Europe. Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Iran also have Caspian ports.

The new port also has container handling facilities and a polypropylene terminal which will handle products from a nearby plant which is set to be launched later this year.

Turkmenistan does not report how much cargo its existing Caspian port currently handles.

#Caspienne

Russia Says Caspian Legal Status Resolved, Agreement Ready For Signing

▻https://www.rferl.org/a/qishloq-ovozi-caspian-status-resolved-russia-says/28903729.html

Si c’est vraiment vrai, c’est historique.

https://gdb.rferl.org/28EDEB1E-9E9A-440C-9D63-D860F6B684AD_cx0_cy9_cw0_w1200_r1_s.jpg

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a recent meeting of foreign ministers from the Caspian Sea littoral states that after more than 20 years of talks, an agreement on the legal status of the Caspian was “practically ready” for signing.

Lavrov met in Moscow with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan on December 4-5.

After the meeting ended, Lavrov told reporters: “I am pleased to tell you that we have found solutions to all outstanding key issues linked with this document. The text of the convention is practically ready.”

Un petit rappel du contexte :

►https://visionscarto.net/caspienne-mer-ou-lac

https://visionscarto.net/local/adapt-img/1300/20x/local/cache-vignettes/L3493xH3152/28690517253_4211-03a1e.jpg?1505057771

#mer_caspienne #asie_centrale #caucase

How Azerbaijan, Georgia, And Turkey Subverted Russia And Isolated Armenia With New Railway

▻https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/10/30/new-silk-road-azerbaijan-georgia-and-turkey-unite-over-new-rail-line-armenia

Depuis le temps qu’on en parle. Un événement social, politique et économique majeur dans le Caucase

https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/600x315/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2Faafb76828922456a8174069f132dc64a%2F960x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale https://blogs-images.forbes.com/wadeshepard/files/2016/12/Construction4.jpg?width=960

After many years of anticipation and delays, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) rail line has ceremoniously gone into service. Its first train just pulled out of the New Port of Baku on Monday, making its first official run across Azerbaijan and Georgia to the east of Turkey. The presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey along with the prime ministers of Georgia and Kazakhstan showed up at the commencement gala and symbolically drove in the final railroad spikes.

BTK Overview

The BTK rail line, which extends from the bank of the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan to the capital city of Georgia before carrying on to Turkey, where it feeds into the broader Turkish rail system to Europe beyond, was first envisioned in 1993 after an existing railway that went to Baku via Armenia was shut down due to the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict.

#caucase #Transport_ferroviaire #arménie #géorgie #azerbaïdjan #turquie #btk

#Oil & #Gas #Map of Caspian Sea Region.

The Caspian Sea has its own species of seal, among other interesting fauna, and has a maximum depth of 3,360 feet or 1,025 meters. It can be technically called the largest lake on earth by area, but it should be noted the southern 2/3 is brackish (slightly salty) rather than freshwater. The shoreline on the east is desert, on the north is steppe, and to the south and west is temperate and humid.

https://i.redditmedia.com/klzbEbNWrMAsZ_5qjFEgbD6a7_L41Y83lB_bEvZZJfE.jpg?w=1024&s=d6df70ad8fc318a6d3372b3e6f68e840#.jpg

#Caspian_Sea evaporating as temperatures rise, study finds
▻http://news.agu.org/press-release/caspian-sea-evaporating-as-temperatures-rise-study-finds
▻http://sites.agu.org/files/2017/08/The-Caspian-Sea-from-Space.jpg

http://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/12378-caspian-3.jpg

Earth’s largest inland body of water has been slowly evaporating for the past two decades due to rising temperatures associated with climate change, a new study finds.

Water levels in the Caspian Sea dropped nearly 7 centimeters (3 inches) per year from 1996 to 2015, or nearly 1.5 meters (5 feet) total, according to the new study. The current Caspian Sea level is only about 1 meter (3 feet) above the historic low level it reached in the late 1970s.

Increased evaporation over the Caspian Sea has been linked to increased surface air temperatures. According to the data from the study, the average yearly surface temperature over the Caspian Sea rose by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) between the two time frames studied, 1979-1995 and 1996-2015. These rising temperatures are likely a result of climate change, according to the study’s authors.

Evaporation brought about by warming temperatures appears to be the primary cause of the current drop in sea level and the decline will likely continue as the planet warms, according to the study’s authors.

“From our point of view as geoscientists, it’s an interesting place because it’s possible to construct a sort of budget for the total amount of water that’s there,” said Clark Wilson, a geophysicist with the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, and co-author of the new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. “The real control that causes it to go up and down over long periods of time is really most likely the evaporation, which is almost completely dominated by temperature.”

#Mer_Caspienne

The World according to Eratosthenes

▻http://etc.usf.edu/maps/pages/10400/10489/10489.htm

http://etc.usf.edu/maps/pages/10400/10489/10489.jpg

Projection: Unknown,
Source Bounding Coordinates:
W: E: N: S:

Description: A facsimile of the world map by Eratosthenes (around 220 BC). Eratosthenes is the ancient Greek mathematician and geographer attributed with devising the first system of Latitude and Longitude. He was also the first know person to calculate the circumference of the earth. This is a facsimile of the map he produced based on his calculations. The map shows the routes of exploration by Nearchus from the mouth of the Indus River (325 BC, after the expedition to India by Alexander the Great), and Pytheas (300 BC) to Britannia. Place names include Hellas (Greece), Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea), Mare Caspium (Caspian Sea), Gades (Cadiz), Columnæ Herculis (Gibraltar), Taprobane (Sri Lanka), Iberes (Iberian peninsula), Ierne (Ireland), and Brettania (Britain), the rivers Ister (Danube), Oxus (Amu Darya), Ganges, and Nilus (Nile), and mountain systems. The map shows his birthplace in Libya (Cyrene), the Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Syene (Aswan) where Eratosthenes made his calculations of the earth’s circumference, and the latitudes and longitudes of several locations based on his measurements in stadia.

Place Names: A Complete Map of Globes and Multi-continent, Europa, -Libya, -Asia, -India, -Scythia, -Arabi
ISO Topic Categories: society
Keywords: The World according to Eratosthenes, physical, -historical, kEarlyMapsFacsimile, physical features, topographical, society, Unknown, 220 BC
Source: Ernest Rhys, Ed., A Literary and Historical Atlas of Asia (New York, NY: E.P. Dutton & CO., 1912) 2
Map Credit: Courtesy the private collection of Roy Winkelman

#cartographie #cartographie_ancienne

America Rules the Waves. But for How Long ? - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-03/america-rules-the-waves-but-for-how-long

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China builds fake islands in the South China Sea. Russia fires missiles into Syria from the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas. North Korea launches ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan. The U.S. orders three — three! — aircraft carrier strike groups to the Western Pacific in response. Houthi rebels shoot rockets at U.S. ships off Yemen. Pacific nations go on a submarine-buying binge. India and China start constructing their first homemade aircraft carriers. Pirates return to the waters off East Africa.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that control of high seas is becoming more vital than any time since World War II. Which makes it the perfect moment for an authoritative new book on the role of sea power in shaping human civilization across the globe and across the ages.

Into the breach steps James Stavridis, a retired four-star admiral and former supreme allied commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. His new book, “Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World’s Oceans,” is a breezy yet comprehensive overview of the topic, as well as a sort of sailor’s log and meditation on the power of the Great Blue. I decided a talk with Stavridis, now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, could help put the rising tensions on the world’s waterways into perspective. Here is an edited transcript of our interview.

Intéressant entretien avec un survol (forcément rapide…) de #géopolitique (mânes de Mahan !)

La réponse à la dernière question :

Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement is a huge blow. Voluntary, international cooperation on emissions control is the way forward, and now that is in question. There are a lot of international organizations that work on fisheries, scientific monitoring, deal with pollution and the like, but they are mostly under the United Nations umbrella. And strengthening them under Trump will be tougher.

In the U.S., we need better interagency cooperation: all cabinet-level and other organizations — Treasury, Justice Department, Coast Guard — working together to think through our regulatory regimes, share data, and reach a common understanding of how to go after lawbreakers. Oceans are the biggest crime scene in the world.

But above all, we need better public-private cooperation. You cannot solve this globally without working with the companies that move 95 percent of the world’s good across the ocean highway. It would be like developing a cyber-defense strategy without talking to Microsoft or Google. People call the Amazon the “lungs of the earth,” but it’s really the oceans. And if we cannot count on sustainable oceans, our future is bleak.

Caspian Sea Platform Collapses in High Winds; 1 Dead, 9 Missing – gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/caspian-sea-platform-collapses-high-winds-1-dead-9-missing

One person has died and a search and rescue is underway for 9 others missing after a part of an oil installation collapsed in strong winds in the Caspian Sea.

The platform is operated by Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR.

The company said it was notified of the incident at about 5 a.m. Thursday morning. According to reports, a 150-meter section of a trestle bridge connecting offshore installations collapsed in winds reaching up to 91 m.p.h. Part of an accommodation unit is believed to have also collapsed.

Ten people were missing, SOCAR said, but an update from the company said one body has been recovered from the scene.

#oil_rocks #Neft_Daşları #Нефтяные_Камни

Statut de la Caspienne : on avance… ou pas !
on en est à la 47ème session du groupe de travail sur le sujet…

PressTV-‘Caspian Sea legal regime needs consensus’
▻http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/10/23/490345/Iran-Caspian-Sea-Mohammad-Javad-Zarif-legal-regime

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Caspian Sea’s legal regime should be drawn up based on mutual trust, consensus, and understanding and must take into account the common interests of all involved countries.

The Iranian minister made the remarks in an address to the 47th session of the special working group to draft the convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea in Tehran on Sunday.

Russia Starts Military Drills On Ukraine’s Border, In Annexed Crimea
▻http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-crimea-ukraine-military-drills/27967877.html

http://www.rferl.org/img/RFE/top_logo_news.png

Moscow has launched large-scale military drills on Ukraine’s eastern border and around Ukraine’s Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

The Russian Defense Ministry said September 5 that 12,500 servicemen are taking part in the drills across its southern military region. It said the Russian Navy in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea are participating in the exercises and that planes also are being used.

The six-day exercises will test the army’s ability to “plan, prepare, and carry out military actions,” the ministry said in a statement.

Russia last month conducted a large-scale snap drill, putting its troops on full combat readiness in military districts bordering Ukraine and the Baltic states.

#russie #ukraine #crimée #armée #opérations_militaires

Three killed in shipping collision in Turkey’s Bosphorus | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-shipping-bosphorus-idUSKCN10S0P0

Three Turkish Coast Guard personnel were killed on Wednesday [17/08/16] after their vessel collided with a bulk carrier in the Bosphorus strait, forcing officials to temporarily suspend traffic in the busy shipping lane.

Their vessel capsized after colliding with the Tolunay, a Cook Island-flagged bulk carrier, which was sailing toward the Black Sea, shipping agent GAC said.

Four members of the Coast Guard were in hospital, a spokesman at the Istanbul governor’s office said.

The collision occurred at 8:40 a.m. (0540 GMT) at the southern end of the strait, it said, adding that traffic was halted until 2:30 p.m. and has resumed.

More than three percent of the world’s crude supply, mainly from Russia and the Caspian Sea, passes through the 17-mile Bosphorus which connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

Russian tanker catches fire in Caspian Sea, 1 crew member reported killed (VIDEO) — RT News
▻https://www.rt.com/news/340696-russian-tanker-fire-caspian

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySReJ_B9V90

A Russian tanker has caught fire in the Caspian Sea near the territorial waters of Turkmenistan. The crew has been evacuated while the Russian Emergency Ministry prepares amphibious firefighting aircraft to extinguish the fire on the vessel.
A source told RIA Novosti that the ignition source is believed to be on the deck of the vessel.

The Palflot-2 vessel in distress is currently drifting in Turkmenistan’s territorial waters some 800 kilometers from Russia’s nearest port, Astrakhan. Ten crew members have been evacuated from the ship by another Russian vessel, emergency agency sources told Russian media.

The Southern Regional Center of Russia’s Emergency Ministry has confirmed the fire on Palflot-2 tanker claimed the life of a ship’s mechanic, reportedly a citizen of Kazakhstan.

(port d’attache : Taganrog au fin fond de la mer d’Azov)

Blair advised Kazakh leader how to present worker deaths | The Times

▻http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4734573.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2016_04_17

Le délicieux Tony Blair conseille le dictateur tueur d’ouvriers.

#beurk

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/01095/874d72dc-04a9-11e6_1095697h.jpg

On a distant stretch of Caspian Sea coastline in western Kazakhstan, the plans for a tourist resort called Kenderli are nothing if not ambitious.

Local officials envisage 22 hotels, three golf courses, a water park, shopping centres and a marina for luxury yachts, catering for 600,000 people a year, in as little as five years’ time.

#blair #kazakhstan

#Derbent as Russia’s Oldest City ? Think Again, Moscow Says - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/world/europe/derbent-as-russias-oldest-city-think-again-moscow-says.html

http://cs421225.vk.me/v421225330/493/UsowklGmbeE.jpg

Not so many years ago, Derbent buzzed with plans to celebrate its 5,000th anniversary, envisioning the day when it would claim the title of “Russia’s oldest city.”

Not so fast, came the response from Moscow. Like a plastic surgeon with a supernatural touch, the central government peeled away centuries. Out went the plans to commemorate 5,000 years, in came a grand fete to mark the city’s 2,000th birthday.

The mix of Muslims, Christians and Jews who live here along the Caspian Sea reacted collectively with a baffled “What?!” and continued to cherish the older date.

“Throughout the Soviet period they said it was 5,000 years old, and then suddenly they changed it,” groused Alex Abdulfez, a young tour guide at the ancient fortress called Naryn-Kala, which dominates the town. “I don’t recognize any other date. I don’t accept it; nobody does. Everybody in Derbent says it’s 5,000 years old.”
[…]
This being Russia, the date issue spawned an elaborate conspiracy theory. In brief: Mr. Putin is a history buff. After he annexed Crimea in 2014, he startled historians by christening Chersonesus, founded some 2,500 years ago, the historic root of Russia, as holy as Jerusalem.

In addition, Derbent’s cast of Arab, Persian and Turkish rulers long appreciated its role as the choke point preventing the marauding nomads in what became Russia from plundering the far more civilized empires of the Middle East.

In other words, many Derbent residents are convinced that it was denied its full age because it clashed with various founding myths that Mr. Putin wanted for Russia.

#Daguestan

Visite en vrac (et en russe)
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj1qRmHzI3s

#Altargana 2016 to take place in Ulan-Ude | The UB Post
▻http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/?p=18403

The 22nd Altargana Festival of Buryat is to be celebrated from July 1 to 3 in Ulan-Ude of Buryatia. The festival aims to restore and protect the tradition, culture and sports of Buryat. The government of Mongolia established the festival’s organizing committee. The Minister of Culture of Buryatia Timur Tsibikov was appointed as head of the festival’s organizing committee.
Folk and modern song competition named One Day of Buryats will be held as part of the festival. An exhibition of handicrafts and Daginas beauty contest will be organized during the festival.
Altargana is an international celebration of Buryat tribes, which showcases the traditions of Buryats from Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude, Kalmyk Mongols from north of the Caspian Sea in Russia, Tuvans, Inner Mongolians and Mongolians from around the world. It features folk songs, dances, Buryat wrestling and archery competitions.
The first Altargana Festival was held in 1994 in Khentii Province to promote folk arts and culture of the Buryat people living in Mongolia, Russia and China.

#Bouriatie

#Guneshli oil platform fire claims 32 lives in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea waters
▻http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/guneshli-oil-platform-fire-claims-32-lives-azerbaijans-caspian-sea-waters

http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1473739/azerbaijan-oil-rig-fire.jpg

A fire on an offshore oil platform in the Guneshli field near Azerbaijan has claimed the lives of 32 workers. More than 40 were rescued in an emergency evacuation as the inferno took hold.

The country’s state energy company State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (#Socar) said the fire started after a gas pipeline on the platform was damaged in heavy wind. The platform is understood to have been battered by high winds and waves of more than eight metres at the time.
[…]
Socar has also confirmed that workers on another oil rig, 18.6 miles from the fire-struck one, are missing after the storm. Last year, 14 workers were killed on Socar platforms.

The old problem and the sea - AzerNews
▻http://www.azernews.az/analysis/90339.html

le vieux serpent de la mer (?) Caspienne

At the time when the world leaders discuss the climate change issues in Paris, each country around the globe should think about its own contribution to the future of the planet.
Providing stable ecological situation dos not mean to think about the situation in one country, but the region as a whole. In the Caspian region, this issue remains acute, as five littoral countries could not come to a single position on the Caspian Sea – a one-of-a-kind water basin, surrounded by Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran.
[…]
The unresolved status has caused many problems, the most significant of which is increased pollution. Oil production and refining have adversely affected the environmental condition of the sea. Although oil production does not play an integral source of pollution in the Caspian.
Recent studies have shown that the main source might be pollutants flowing in from rivers such as the Kura, Terek, and Volga. These major rivers bring about 75,000 tons of waste per year into the Caspian Sea, 90 percent of which flows from the Volga.
Meanwhile, oil production releases only 111 tons of oil products into the sea.
A third, but no less important source of the sea pollution, is industrial and household waste, especially in large cities.

Dans le flux de Naharnet :

Information obtained by LBCI: Russia has asked Lebanon to “divert civilian flights from the Lebanese airspace to the international airspace” as of midnight and the request was made to several countries.

Authorities at Beirut’s airport said they have been informed by Russia that it intends to stage a naval drill that will affect aviation in Lebanon’s airspace.

Russia demands ’no fly zone’ over Lebanon and Cyprus
▻http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2015/11/20/russia-demands-no-fly-zone-over-lebanon-and-cyprus

Lebanon may close its airspace for three consecutive days after receiving an official request from the Russians, say senior aviation officials.
Passenger flights must avoid Lebanon’s airspace for three days, according to an official request from Russia to Lebanese aviation authorities.

The temporary suspension of civil aviation would likely begin at midnight on Friday, but officials are reportedly discussing alternative flight paths over Cyprus, according to reports.

Très nombreuses manifestations et répression dans les provinces iraniennes d’Azerbaïdjan occidental et méridional, Ardebil et Zanjan.

Apparemment depuis lundi, à la suite "d’insultes envers les Azéris" proférées à la télévision d’état.

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/images/stories/2015/other2/3.gif

Sur le site du CNRI Conseil national de la résistance iranienne, des Moudjahiddines du peuple, seul site sur lequel j’ai trouvé quelque chose, en dehors d’extraits de télés azerbaïdjanaises.

▻http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/iran-protests/19469-azeri-compatriot-protests-continue-in-different-cities

CNPC and KMZ to double crude oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to China

▻http://www.2b1stconsulting.com/cnpc-and-kmz-to-double-crude-oil-pipeline-from-kazakhstan-to-china

Attention : Ces deux liens sont assez anciens (2007 et 2013) mais j’archive pour les références

http://www.2b1stconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/CNPC_KMZ_Kazakhstan_China_First_Oil_Pipeline.png

The joint venture between the national oil companies China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC or PetroChina) and the local KazMunaiGas (KMZ) is working on a second crude oil export pipeline from Kazakhstan to China.

As the existing pipeline, the new one would connect Atyrau on the coast of the Caspian Sea, eastern Kazakhstan, to the Chinese boarder at the city of Alashankou in the Dushanzi District of the Xinjiang Province in China.

–—

The Geopolitics of Oil Pipelines in Central Asia
▻http://www.sras.org/geopolitics_of_oil_pipelines_in_central_asia

From the Silk Road to Chevron:
The Geopolitics of Oil Pipelines in Central Asia
by James Fishelson

Kazakhstan has received much press recently as a result of the success of the comic film Borat. However, that movie got everything wrong in its depiction of Kazakhstan, with the exception of two things. The first is that the country is in a regional conflict with Uzbekistan. The second is the prevalence of prostitutes, which are everywhere in Kazakhstan. The country has become a target for immigrants practicing the profession, with women, girls, and even a few men flowing in from neighboring countries and farther abroad.[1] Since the 1979 discovery of the Tengiz field, a massive oil source under the North Caspian Sea,[2] and especially after the full-scale exploitation of that field and others during the post-Soviet era, Kazakhstan’s economy is booming and its citizens, in a frenzy of capitalism, are spending the influx of money liberally.

La Russie tire des missiles de croisière à partir de la Caspienne.

Russia’s Shock And Awe : Moscow Ups Its Information Warfare In Syria Operation
▻http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-syria-shock-awe-military-air-strikes-information-warfare/27293854.html

http://www.kyivpost.com/media/images/2015/10/08/p1a15eb63m1o931cknh6ibqu8ai4/original_big.jpg

The plumes of flame light up the early morning skies over the Caspian Sea: Russian cruise missiles, fired from a flotilla of ships, rising into the air and then turning westward to hit sites in Syria some 900 miles away.

The spectacle appeared in a two-minute video posted to YouTube by the Russian Defense Ministry just hours after the missiles slammed into targets in Syria.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMasnaAf_H4

For These Post-Soviet Nations, Big Oil Offers Hope and Fear | WIRED

▻http://www.wired.com/2015/05/mila-teshaieva-promising-waters

A découvrir une magnifique photographe, que j’ai eu la chance d’interviewer à Berlin il y a deux ans. Son livre sur les rivages soviétiques de la mer Caspienne est une pure merveille, Chaque photo une narration historique.

It is a must.

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Prw_02.jpg

As she stood on the shores of the Caspian Sea, photographer Mila Teshaieva was approached by a police officer. “You can’t photograph the sea,” he said. “This is a border.”

“Where is the border?” she asked.

“Everywhere,” replied the policeman. “The sea is the border.”

The idea that the Caspian is a border that cannot be photographed was among the many contradictions Teshaieva encountered while working on Promising Waters. The series documents the radically changing times of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan or Azerbaijan, which border the Caspian Sea and were for 70 years part of the Soviet Union.

#photographie #ex-urss #mer_caspienne #soviétisme #Mila_Teshaieva