Russia and Eurasia’s Transit Corridors

The importance of the transit corridors that connect Russia with Eurasian South and East, have increased against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis, the blocking of Russian communications in the European direction and “the sanctions curtain” lowered on Russia by the West. In connection with all this, the role of the North-South International Transportation Corridor has grown, whilst within the frameworks of its Western Route (Caspian-Azerbaijan-Iran), Russia began expanding its transport and logistics structure. Given complex geopolitical upheavals in the Transcaucasian and the Caspian regions, issues of other alternative transport routes become relevant. The Zangezur corridor project and the Trans-Caspian Trade and Transit Corridor (the Middle Corridor) are among them. Most of planned logistic pathways are less convenient and cheap in comparison with time-tested trade routes that run through the territory of Russia. In addition, the development of new transport corridors is slowed down due to Eurasia’s unstable international political environment.