On February 17, seven unmanned aerial vehicles attacked the Kropotkinskaya pumping station in Russia, a crucial node in the 940-mile Caspian Pipeline Consortium that sends oil from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

The Russian side immediately said it was a “terrorist” attack. The Ukrainian side acknowledged responsibility, saying the strike was directed against “strategic objects that support Russia’s armed aggression.”

For almost three years now, Russia’s military aggression on Ukrainian territory has unleashed a widening circle of violence. Against the backdrop of the recent proposals from the United States and the European Union to find a pathway toward peace, the violence continues, against both settlements and infrastructure.

The attack against the CPC does little to harm Russia. But it could ultimately represent a cost for the transnational corporations that exploit the largest oil fields in western Kazakhstan.

Most of the oil that CPC pumps westwards, in fact, is drawn from the Tengiz oil field, which has been managed for over three decades by U.S. companies Chevron (50 percent), alongside Exxon (20 percent), Russia’s LukArco (5 percent), and Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazmunaigas (25 percent). 

At 1.5 million barrels a day, the CPC........

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