Putin expresses readiness to maintain gas transit through Ukraine after Nord Stream-2 is launched
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the Russian Federation is ready to maintain the transit of exported gas through Ukraine following the completion of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline’s construction, RBC news agency reports. During a meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov on Wednesday, May 30, Putin refused to estimate the gas volumes that can be simultaneously transported through the new gas pipeline and the Ukrainian gas transport system.
“It is a question of how much gas will be transported through it,” Putin stated. “How much transit we will maintain through Ukraine, and if we are ready to maintain Ukrainian transit—there is also a question of how much gas our consumers will need now and in the near future.”
On March 21, deputies of the European Parliament supported the European Commission’s draft law which extends the rules of the EU domestic gas market to the gas pipelines not located on continental Europe. Brussels noted that characteristics of the Nord Stream-2 project are not consistent with the rules of the EU Third energy package, because the pipeline is fully owned by the Russian company Gazprom.
Recently, the parliaments of Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Estonia made a joint statement against the construction of the Nord Stream-2.
Despite the resistance, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany issued permission for the construction of a 30-kilometers section of the gas pipeline.