RusEnergy

26.01.2009 - [Neftegaz.RU] - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has visited Uzbekistan recently to reassert Russian influence in the region. The results of the meeting of two presidents are very posititve for the Russian party. The Moscow Times quoted the Uzbek President Islam Karimov as saying that Uzbekistan is ready to work with Russia on the construction of new pipelines that would boost exports and transit of gas. Karimov said actual sales of Uzbek gas to Russia this year would be lower than the 16 billion cubic meters offered because of technical limitations. But he said Uzbekistan could export twice as much in the future once LUKoil starts producing 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year there by 2015. Karimov, who withdrew Uzbekistan from a Moscow-led regional economic cooperation group, assured Medvedev that he saw the Kremlin as the key player in Central Asia. "Russia is a country which has always been present in this region and a country which has defined politics and the balance of forces here," he said. He also took Medvedev on a tour of the ancient city of Samarkand, in central Uzbekistan, where they visited a bazaar, carpet weaving shop and mosque.