Russia, Kazakhstan: Moving Forward on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium

Russia and Kazakhstan have finally reached an agreement to expand the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) oil pipeline. To get this done, the Kremlin was forced to sideline Transneft, one of its top oil majors. The move marks Moscow's growing awareness of goals that are more important than a domestic company's gratification and constitutes a belated attempt to exercise influence over an increasingly independent Kazakhstan.