Asian Cultures and Modernity Research Reports Editorial Board Birgit N. Schlyter (Editor-in-chief) Merrick Tabor (Associate editor) Mirja Juntunen (Associate editor) Johan Fresk (Assistant) International Advisory Board Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed (Stockholm University, Sweden) Dr. Bayram Balcı (Inst. français d’étude sur l’Asie centrale, Uzbekistan) Dr. Ooi Kee Beng (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore) Datuk Prof. Dr. Shamsul A.B. (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) The Asian Cultures and Modernity Research Group A plethora of state- and nation-building programmes are being developed in present- day Asia, where governments have to consider the regionality of old ethno-cultural identities. While the cohesive power of traditions must be put into use within a particular nation, that same power challenges its national boundaries. To soften this contradiction, economic and/or political regionalism, in contrast to isolationism and globalism, becomes a solution, suggesting new and exciting routes to modernity. In studies conducted by the Asian Cultures and Modernity Research Group at Stockholm University, sociolinguistic and culture-relativistic perspectives are applied with the support of epistemological considerations from the field of political science. Department of Oriental Languages Stockholm University SE-106 91 Stockholm E-mail:
[email protected] ISSN 1651-0666 ISBN 978-91-976907-2-0 Asian Cultures and Modernity Research Report No. 15 Natural-Gas Trade between Russia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine Agreements and Disputes by Michael Fredholm Department of South and Central Asian Studies Stockholm University Editorial Note The author has written extensively on the history, defence and security policies, and energy sector developments of Eurasia. He also heads the business research company Team Ippeki.