Russia to speed up alternative gas pipeline projects after Ukraine gas crisis

31 January 2009

After its credibility was hammered as a stable supplier of gas to Europe in its gas transit row with Ukraine earlier this month, Russia is speeding the completion of two new gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine as the EU seriously looks for alternative energy sources to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

In an interview with Bulgarian national television yesterday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia will speed up the construction of the South Stream and the Nord Stream pipelines that bypass Ukraine.

"If we can diversify supplies, Europe will depend less on the whims of the political regime in one country or another," he said.

Medvedev repeated what he had said earlier, that Russia was not responsible for the gas supply cut, which nearly brought Europe to its knees for two weeks in the middle of a harsh winter, the worst seen in a decade in most parts of Northern and Eastern Europe with the Balkans particularly facing the freeze as Ukraine and Russia battled over gas price and transit costs.

"Judicial responsibility has to be brought against the party that is really to blame for not respecting its contract," and he wanted an "international legal control mechanism" to be created so that the transit country will not be able to break its obligations bound by a commercial contract.

The Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea and the South Stream pipeline from Russia to the Balkans under the Black Sea will not transit through any country, giving Europe direct access to Russian gas for the first time.