Turkmenistan was reminded recently who calls the shots in Central Asia when Russia, Ashgabat's former Soviet ruler, used a disagreement over a natural gas pipeline explosion to tighten its grip on Turkmenistan's energy supply. The spat began April 9 when a natural gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan to Russia burst. Though Russia denied the explosion was politically motivated, it also conveniently failed to inform Turkmenistan earlier that it was reducing its intake of Turkmen natural gas. Since Turkmenistan was pumping more natural gas into the pipeline than Russia was taking out, the pipeline burst, leaving Ashgabat extremely irritated with Moscow. To express its displeasure with Russia, the Turkmen government then made a very public demonstration of reaching out to the West by signing a major energy deal with German energy firm RWE.