Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan Sidestep Russia With New Trade Partnership

Kazakhstan has in a fresh effort to ease bottlenecks in a transportation corridor bypassing Russia reached an understanding with Azerbaijan and Georgia to set up a jointly run and owned logistics company.  The agreement was signed last week at the culmination of a trip to the South Caucasus nations by Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov. The goal behind establishing the company will be to simplify the process of handling cargo transportation between China and Europe and to streamline the tariff process.  Pessimistic analyses…