Five years ago, on December 1, 2014, Russia announced its surprise abandonment of its South Stream pipeline project that would have run across the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria.
The European Union said Moscow’s move to forgo the project underscored the need for diverse energy sources, while Moscow vowed to find other ways to get its natural gas to paying clients.
The announcement was made by President Vladimir Putin in Turkey, and the decision followed years of wrangling between the EU and Russia over energy supplies. Many in the West claim Moscow uses its energy exports as a geopolitical tool and it reflected the severe strain in ties caused by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support of military action in eastern Ukraine.
Frederica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said, “The decision that was taken and announced by Russia yesterday [December 1] tells us that it is urgent not only to diversify the routes but also the sources of energy for the European Union.”
Mr. Putin blamed the EU for the decision, with Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich adding, “You can’t force people to like you. We will find other forms to achieve our plans in connection to supplying gas to other regions. The consequence should rather be calculated by those who, as a matter of fact, drove the project to the grave.”
Doubts about the South Stream project deepened in June 2014 when the EU said Bulgaria had breached the bloc’s rules by the way it awarded contracts for its leg of the pipeline.
Mr. Putin claimed that Bulgaria had ceded its sovereignty to Brussels, but European Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva said Russia was using this as an excuse.
Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev naively suggested that the project would be saved if Russia were to follow the rules. Mr. Plevneliev said: “If Russia agrees to comply with European law, I do not imagine anybody having objections to this project. At the same time, up until this moment, Russia has not given indications of its intentions to comply with EU law.”
Since then, Russia has pursued two other pipelines – TurkStream (which runs from Russia under the Black Sea to Turkey) and Nord Stream 2 (which runs from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany). TurkStream is scheduled to be completed by 2020 and Nord Stream 2 cleared a major hurdle when Denmark approved construction through its territorial waters, but the project faces opposition from the United States and members of the EU, who claim it will increase EU dependency on Russian energy supplies.
Source: “Russia nixes South Stream pipeline,” (RFE/RL, AFP, AP and Reuters), The Ukrainian Weekly, December 7, 2014.