... redirecting the pipeline through Turkey rather than Bulgaria does not strengthen Russia’s position on the European gas market from a strategic point of view. Rather, abandoning the South Stream project should be a good reason to start a new chapter in energy cooperation between Europe and Russia.
The decision on South Stream can easily be viewed as a reaction to Western sanctions. For years, Brussels has been pursuing an active policy against Russian plans to build a southern link of its gas infrastructure to connect the country directly with the European market,...
... case of gaining access to the privatization of the national joint stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy.
The South Stream project appears to be the only litmus paper test this year that might reveal the degree of the EU’s determination to restrain its energy relations with Russia (the first gas supplies via South Stream are to happen in late 2015, while in 2013, the construction of the overland section of the South Stream gas pipeline began in Russia, Bulgaria and Serbia). Significant EU reductions of Russian gas imports are unlikely to happen in 2013. And ...
... pipeline that seek to circumvent Russia are built on financial fantasy and betoken of a short-termism that is strategically reckless. Continued austerity for the next decade and perhaps longer will probably end any remaining hopes for both Nabucco and South Stream.
But the energy battle between the EU and Russia over Nabucco and South Stream is a proxy conflict in a wider war of rival visions – a growing strategic divergence that risks dividing the greater Europe permanently. Just as the EU seeks to diversify its sources of supply away from Russia ...
... realities or Russian and peculiarly even its own interests as it is undermining its own energy security.
Long-Term Contracts a No-No:
An area of contention stimulating... ... that Europe feels that gas is overpriced and super-natural profits are recorded by the Russian gas monopoly. At IMEMO RAN Sergei Komlev, Gazprom Export Head of Department... ... own strategy of spreading costs by building more pipelines and supplying more gas; South Stream pipeline introduction resulted in lower prices for European consumers....
