THE CASPIAN REGION AS THE POINT OF CONFLICT OF INTERESTS OF THE WORLD'S LEADING SUPERPOWERS
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Abstract
The Caspian Sea basin is one of the oldest places in the world where oil is being extracted. By the beginning of the 20th century, this region had already become the center of oil production on a world scale and represented a huge geostrategic value. Many states tried to master it. But certain exhaustion of already exploited deposits and the opening of new reservoirs in Siberia and the Persian Gulf led to the point where Caspian oil partially lost its importance. The current revival of interest in the Caspian region is primarily related to its geographical location and its role as a transit hub for the transportation of energy resources. Also, due to the increase in the consumption of energy carriers and the discovery of new technologies for oil extraction, the Caspian deposits gained importance again, and in the 1990s, a number of new richest deposits were also opened in previously unexplored areas of the bottom of the Caspian Sea.
Today, the Caspian basin is of great interest to non-regional states, which is related to the wide spread of the version about rich oil reserves in the region, as well as to the important location of the region. This fact is today the main problem that worries Russia and Iran, as well as a number of other Caspian states. Also, among the non-regional players, we should first of all include the USA, whose activities in the Caspian region are primarily manifested in the attempt to help American companies in Azerbaijan.