Europe is increasingly relying on Russian gas supplies and some countries are willing to ignore EU sanctions to work on their own projects, writes Dimitar Bechev in Foreign Policy. Russian gas shipments to Europe and Turkey reached a record high of 201.8 billion cubic metres in 2018. Russia could use the TurkStream project with Turkey to increase its influence in Eastern Europe, according to Bechev, while Germany is backing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia. TurkStream comes amid increasing friction between Turkey and the west. The European Commission has said it will not grant Turkish Stream, which would link up Turkey’s Black Sea coast with Germany’s Baltic Sea, approval until after an environmental impact study (EIS) by German authorities.
Europe is increasingly relying on Russian gas supplies and some countries are willing to ignore EU sanctions to work on their own projects, writes Dimitar Bechev in Foreign Policy. Russian gas shipments to Europe and Turkey reached a record high of 201.8 billion cubic metres in 2018. Russia could use the TurkStream project with Turkey to increase its influence in Eastern Europe, according to Bechev, while Germany is backing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia. TurkStream comes amid increasing friction between Turkey and the west. Russian president Vladimir Putin has also been seeking new Gazprom partners in the Balkans.