The Caspian area constitutes a rather vague and awkwardly structuresd object in Russia's policy. The much valued 'position of strength' in the Caspian has proven to be essentially unusable.
Baev, Pavel K. (2006) The Caspian Direction in Putin's "Energy Super-power" Strategy for Russia, presented at the Annual Conference of the American Association for Advanced Slavic Studies (AAASS), November 18.
