ATHENS - Russia stands ready to implement various energy projects together with European countries, but it will do so only if its partners offer relevant guarantees, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
“We are ready to consider any (energy) projects, regardless of the context of political relations with any country in Europe, with our neighbors. We are ready to implement any project. But we need guarantees in advance. We are not going to buy just words that something is of great mutual interest,” Putin said at a press conference in Athens on Friday when asked about the future of South Stream and other joint energy projects with Europe.
“We won’t waste money on this,” he said.Russia is determined to proceed with the implementation of the Nord Stream-2 project, Putin said.
“I hope nobody will hamper at least this project,” Putin said, adding that Moscow is ready to work “in southern Europe as well.
“Putin said he had “just recently signed a memorandum between an Italian-French and Greek company and Gazprom, and our partners are analyzing these opportunities now.
“The decision not to implement the South Stream project was not Russia’s, Putin said.
“As is well-known, we were determined to implement South Stream across Bulgarian territory. We were stopped from doing that. Under American pressure and under the European Commission’s pressure, the Bulgarian government in fact evaded the implementation of this project. After that, we had no choice but to stop this project,” Putin said.
After that, a route across Turkey was offered, Putin said.
“I’ll disclose a little secret to you: our Turkish partners first demanded that the current gas prices be adjusted in advance, which we hadn’t agreed on. But this is not the main problem, we would have reached agreement on this. But, again, we didn’t see support from the European Commission,” he said
