Meanwhile, series of circumstances attest that the “project of the century” is dubious. And it’s senseless to try to find “an Armenian trace” there. What about the mass protests of the population of Southern regions of Georgia against the construction of the oil pipeline through there lands, it is well known that the main part of them are either Greeks or Georgians. Their concern is understandable. The land is a private property. Now they are tying to convince its owners that it will not be untouchable. Moreover, there is a real danger that on the pretext of guarding the security of the pipeline, the Turkish soldiers will start to visit this region. Plus the danger of possible damages. In short, the population of the regions included in the plan have lot of claims to the initiators of the “project of the century”. They have enough means to hinder to the construction of the pipeline, which will cause lot of problems to them. One must be very naive to believe that placement of troops in the Tsalki region for pacification of the citizens allowed Eduard Shevardnadze to solve all the problems.

There are also other circumstances that represent a danger for the implementation of the project. First of all, the expected fluctuations of world prices on hydrocarbon fuel. According to the forecasts of the American experts, a sharp reduction of incomes from sale of crude oil is expected in the nearest future. As a result of decrease of profitability of the oil business, caused by general decrease of demand on oil products, the prices on the crude oil will decrease and become less than the level set by the OPEK member-countries. It is known that construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan gas pipeline will be profitable in case if the oil prices are not less than 20 dollars for a barrel. Decrease of quotations will lead to total failure of the plans of the international consortium. Drawing the prospects of the plan, the founders of the consortium, surely understand that seriousness of this danger.

It is worth noting that the rationally thinking Russian businessmen desisted from participation in the dubious project because they found the risk of the failure rather high. The “LUCoil” company refused to invest money in the construction of the oil pipeline despite the fact that in the beginning it liked the idea. What about the Russian government, it has always been against the involvement of Russian oil companies in the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan pipeline. Vice Premier of Russia Victor Khristenko has several times stated that Moscow does not consider the project economically expedient. The State Duma has seriously discussed the issue of adoption of a law prohibiting the Russian companies to participate in the project of the Baku-Jeyhan pipeline construction, as “it contradicted the political and economic interests of Russia”. Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Victor Kalyuzhni announced in November last year about the support to that initiative. Again, one must be very naive to think that Moscow will not undertake actions aimed at failure of a project, which contradicts the national interests of Russia.

So, it is evident that the future of the “project of the century”, to put it mildly, is rather vague.