Based on a content analysis of over 5,500 media articles, this contribution analyses debates about export pipelines in five post-Soviet countries, namely Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Ukraine, focusing on time periods of decisive pipeline decisions. The analysis covers the entirety of the policy communities engaging in these debates, identifying opinion leaders, dissenting voices and relevant cleavages. It shows that even in authoritarian regimes broad groups of actors are involved in pipeline debates, with not just the ruling elites, but also representatives of foreign states and companies as well as domestic and foreign experts playing prominent roles. In most cases, a broad consensus about pipeline choices seems to be genuine and not the result of political pressure. This consensus focuses on narrow considerations of direct commercial and political gains from pipeline projects, largely ignoring broader societal and environmental impacts.

本文基于对 5,500 多篇媒体文章的内容分析，分析了五个后苏联国家（即阿塞拜疆、哈萨克斯坦、俄罗斯、土库曼斯坦和乌克兰）关于出口管道的辩论，重点关注决定性管道决策的时间段。分析涵盖了参与这些辩论的整个政策社区，识别意见领袖、不同意见和相关分歧。这表明，即使在威权政权中，也有广泛的参与者群体参与了管道辩论，不仅有统治精英，还有外国国家和公司的代表以及国内外专家扮演着重要角色。在大多数情况下，关于管道选择的广泛共识似乎是真实的，而不是政治压力的结果。