Russia needs solid guarantees from EU for South Stream – Construction of Turkish Stream to start soon

Russia is aware of Bulgaria's readiness to renew the South Stream projects, but needs solid legal guarantees from Europe, stated the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, after his meeting with the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

– We see now and aware that the Bulgarian side wants to return to the project, but we have suffered certain losses due to the refusal of European partners to realize the project. Intentions are not enough now. We need rock-solid guarantees of legal nature. There have been none so far – Putin said.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov stated a few days ago that Sophia and Moscow had agreed to form workgroups which would find ways to renew the works on the two energy-related projects, the South Stream and the Belene nuclear power plant.

Russia's Gazprom canceled the construction of the South Stream in 2014, after the EU forced Bulgaria to withdraw from the project, as the pipeline would, as it was said, violate the EU's competition rules.

Putin said that there were no doubts regarding the implementation of the project of the construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline, through which Russian gas would be delivered to Turkey, and that its realization might start soon.

– Since the very beginning, we have seen the Turkish Stream as an opportunity for improving our cooperation with Turkey and Europe in this area, not as an alternative to the South Stream project – Putin said.

A segment of the Turkish Stream is, as he said, meant for local consumers in Turkey exclusively, and there should be no doubts about that segment, the implementation of which could start in near future.

Erdogan stated that the official Ankara was ready to return the deliveries of natural gas to Europe through the Turkish Stream pipeline and said that the projects would be realized.

Gazprom Moscow

South Stream

Vladimir Putin

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Boyko Borissov

Belene nuclear power plant

Gazprom

Turkish Stream