The news about Georgia are included in our article about Lahti we posted today, October 21, 2006; the news about Kazakhstan follow now:

(a) The EU has made an energy agreement with Kazakhstan.

(b) Kazakhstan has announced that it is buiding a fence along 28 miles of its long border with Uzbekistan. Officials said the eight-foot-high barbed-wire fence, with searchlights, would be built along heavily populated towns and cities on the southern ridge to funnel drug smugglers into the countrtside, where it is easier to use weapons or capture them. Further it must be noted that the border has seen lately a regional struggle with Islamic militants.

Obviously, the Kazakhstan/Georgia/Turkey pipelines, and the Russian reluctance to sign on with the proposed EU Energy Charter, must have something to do with these developments.