Published time: December 01, 2014 17:30
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting in the Presidential Palace in Ankara December 1, 2014. (RIA Novosti / Michael Klimentyev)
Russia is forced to withdraw from the South Stream project due to the EU’s unwillingness to support the pipeline, and gas flows will be redirected to other customers, Vladimir Putin said after talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"We believe that the stance of the European Commission was counterproductive. In fact, the European Commission not only provided no help in implementation of [the South Stream pipeline], but, as we see, obstacles were created to its implementation. Well, if Europe doesn’t want it implemented, it won’t be implemented,” the Russian president said.
According to Putin, the Russian gas “will be retargeted to other regions of the world, which will be achieved, among other things, through the promotion and accelerated implementation of projects involving liquefied natural gas.”
“We’ll be promoting other markets and Europe won’t receive those volumes, at least not from Russia. We believe that it doesn’t meet the economic interests of Europe and it harms our cooperation. But such is the choice of our European friends,” he said.
Russia will raise gas supplies to Turkey by 3 billion cubic meters via the Blue Stream pipeline and is mulling a new hub on the Turkish-Greek border for southern European consumers, Vladimir Putin also said after talks with his Turkish counterpart. Last year, 13.7 bcm of gas were supplied to Turkey via Blue Stream, according to Reuters.
Putin said that Russia may build a gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border to supply Southern European customers with gas to compensate for the loss of South Stream.
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