For now, the sole working route to Russia's Black Sea coast runs through Dagestan and Chechnya.
But the bulk of this output is expected to flow through a new line running to Russia's Black Sea coast.
In Russia's Black Sea oil port of Novorossisk, for example, a local British businessman, Clive Rumens, wanted to set up a small factory producing a simple additive that makes crude oil pour more easily.
Moscow's powerful mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, makes sure that young men from his city serve either locally or on Russia's balmy Black Sea coast.
An hour's drive away is the Hairaton border crossing to Uzbekistan, which provides a link to a network of rail and truck routes that reach across Central Asia and Russia to Baltic and Black Sea ports.
If Russia was genuinely interested in providing some kind of naval assistance to its Syrian ally, or in conducting some sort of an evacuation, using ships from the Northern Fleet makes absolutely no sense: Russia has ships in the Black Sea that are much closer and that could be on station in a matter of days.
Oil is piped from the Caspian Sea to ports in the Black Sea, increasing Russia's anxiety to maintain control.
The Black Sea area of Russia has been particularly hard hit, with at least 58 deaths over the course of the weekend.
This decision, made only two weeks after the original suspension, came on the heels of comments made by the new Russian Finance Minister, Aleksandr Livshits, that equated Russian tax collection with a 'black hole' and said that Russia is an unusual country because it is possible to 'pay no taxes at all and nothing whatever will happen.
Russia's role as Olympic host got another black eye after a top Russian crime lord was gunned down last week in Moscow in what police described as a war between two powerful mobs over lucrative construction projects, allegedly including ones for the 2014 Sochi games.
Charlotte Hobson is the author of Black Earth City, which describes life in Russia during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Another project which Mr Putin is determined should go ahead is Russia's South Stream gas pipeline, across the Black Sea and into the heart of the European Union.
Western military analysts have noted Russia's use of destroyers and landing craft from the Black Sea and Northern Fleets to back up its feeble Baltic-based naval forces.
Russia also continues to push South Stream, a Russian-backed Black Sea pipeline.
Medvedev had indicated that Cyprus was the responsibility of the EU but Black said that if the Cypriot financial system collapsed the losses Russia would be exposed to would be far greater than the loan it had already extended to Cyprus.
In Russia in 2010 Chevron signed an exploration deal with Kremlin-controlled Rosneft to explore in the Black Sea region.
Moscow (CNN) -- Russia's security service has foiled a plot to attack the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea city of Sochi, state media reported Thursday.
Yet almost at the same time that Russia was making these concessions, a number of media reports have emerged that indicate that Russia is sending a sizable a flotilla of ships drawn from the Baltic, Northern, and Black Sea fleets to Syria.
The Desire 600 picks up the same dual front-facing speaker setup of the One, although rather than a global appearance, it's currently headed to Russia, Ukraine and the Middle-East for now, landing early this June in white and black options.
Dagestan is one of seven small republics within the Russian Federation that together comprise Russia's North Caucasus region, a predominantly Muslim area which itself is wedged between the Caspian and Black Seas.
Russia's foreign ministry said it would not respond militarily to the strengthening of the NATO group in the Black Sea, but may raise the issue with the United Nations, Interfax said.
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