... Russo-European relationship has soured creating an anti-Russian stance. Has this occurred due to European attempts to lower gas import prices, or more serious underlining issues? Europe’s potential alternative pipeline has even been called “Nabucco” ... ... 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 ...
... resulting in a natural price increase as pipeline construction or alike now costs more. Also, the European centre-periphery model has altered with population becoming less concentrated requiring an additional infrastructure, thus expenditure. In fact, Gazprom has reduced prices by pursuing its own strategy of spreading costs by building more pipelines and supplying more gas; South Stream pipeline introduction resulted in lower prices for European consumers.
That said, Europe still does not agree, wishing to fit a North American Model where long-term contracts are near absent as purely basic economic principles of supply ...