From Kazakhstan to Russia’s Black Sea coast, the Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline stretches some 1,500km, cutting through the Republic of Kalmykia. Controlled by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), the pipeline transports upwards of 30m tonnes of crude a year.
The Kalmyk authorities are pleased to work with CPC, and so are the residents of villages that the pipeline traverses. Well, most of them—some locals have been left behind.
Birthplace of the power vertical
After Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a Kalmyk businessman and politician, was elected president of Kalmykia in 1993, he immediately began to build his own ‘power vertical’ – a team of loyal officials across the republic, including the leaders of 13 administrative districts and Elista, the capital.
