Russia withdraws from South Stream project

Russia will not carry out the South Stream gas pipeline project, the country’s president Vladimir Putin announced earlier this week after meeting Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Putin cited the EU’s objections as the main reason for the decision. The South Stream pipeline was supposed to provide natural gas from Russia to southern Europe without crossing Ukraine. Instead of that project, Putin said that Russia would build a pipeline to Turkey, in partnership with that country.