THE NORTH-SOUTH INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION CORRIDOR: ROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

The idea of linking Europe and Asia along the Volga and across the Caspian Sea is an old one. Back
in the 17th century Peter the Great never lost sight of the Volga while making his thrust toward Europe: the river route started at St. Petersburg and went all the way to the Caspian. It was his ambition to turn Russia into a great naval power; the Caspian had an important role to play in his plans: through it he hoped to establish trade contacts with India.

The Astrakhan Local Lore Museum provides information on Caspian navigation and fishing; Irani-an and Indian merchants crossed the sea to settle in Astrakhan. Their houses can still be seen in the city’s center. The isolationism that came with Soviet power in 1917 closed the route to Europe across the sea and along the Volga. Until the early 1990s about 2 million tons of international freight did cross the sea and reach Baku from Iran.1 In the wake of the Soviet Union’s disintegration land transit along the formerly safe routes became hazardous because of the geopolitical changes that crippled Russia’s interests in the region, the long-drawn-out attempts to settle the Caspian’s legal status, and the political instability and conflicts raging in the Northern and Southern Caucasus.