The thing that keeps Ukrainian officials awake at night in Kyiv is Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline - the fear that the project will finally be constructed and remove gas volumes crossing the former Soviet republic on the way to Europe and thus lucrative transit fees. “South Stream is more of an alternative to the Russian gas pipeline transiting Ukraine,” Pavel Sorokin, an oil and gas analyst at Moscow’s Alfa Bank, told New Europe on 20 July. “It was one of the bargaining points with Ukraine and one of the factors which should have made Ukraine more cooperative in the gas questions because, of course, if South Stream was built it would take most of the volumes away from Ukraine which would have significantly worsened the economic situation in the country, as that would take the transit fees for gas away from Ukraine and that could have a disastrous effect for Ukraine's economy.” Read the story here.
