The AGRI Natural Gas Project: A Message to Russia?

The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Romania and the Hungarian prime minister signed a joint agreement Sept. 14 on the construction of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI), a liquefied natural gas transportation project. AGRI faces many infrastructural and political obstacles, including uncertainty about funding and natural gas supplies. Though it ostensibly is meant to alleviate Central Europe's dependence on Russian energy supplies, AGRI is more likely a political project the involved countries are using to express displeasure with Russia — and, in Azerbaijan's case, with Turkey.