Central Asia: The Energy Boom

Russian natural gas giant Gazprom announced July 9 that the price of natural gas sent to Europe will rise quickly due to an increase in the price of natural gas going from Central Asia to Russia. The price increase will most likely hit many European consumers hard and keep cash flowing to Moscow, but it will also give Central Asian states like Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan large amounts of their own cash for the first time. This raises the question of what these Central Asian states will do with their new income.