The EU has angered Putin so long time that he finally lost patience
For a long time the European Union obstructed the South Stream pipeline project. The Russian President Vladimir Putin finally lost his patience and abandoned the project. Because of this, south-east of Europe turned out in terms of energy uncertainty. This opinion was expressed by famous Czech journalist and analyst Teresa Spenserova in an interview with news portal Parlamentnilisty.cz.
"The EU long put a spoke in the wheel of the South Stream project and Gazprom, and Putin finally lost patience. The initial calculation in Brussels was probably that the EU would compel Russia to come to its terms. But the rules of the European Union for South Stream would lead to disintegration of Gazprom and its monopoly in the end, as well as the uncontrolled entry of Western companies in the Russian raw materials sector,"- said Spenserova.
According to her, already in the case of Khodorkovsky Moscow made it clear that it intended to retain full control over its hydrocarbon raw materials. At that time, the hope of the EC that it would be able to change anything was unfounded.
"A reasoned and rational approach are now rare things. The EU has achieved only that Russia turned away from it. The south-east of the EU is in terms of energy uncertainty, and Moscow is now going to supply raw materials to Europe via Turkey,"- says the analyst.
According to her, the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is similar to Putin in many ways. Both leaders put national interests first and surely oppose the US domination. In addition, as Spenserova suggests, their relationship has great potential for trade cooperation. At the time when the European Union withdrew from the Russian market and is moving to the crisis and recession, it is able to help Russia and Turkey to strengthen their economic and geopolitical position.
"In the end, if we imagine Turkey in the role of “a guardian of the energy gates " in Europe, we will be able to imagine how it will be difficult (only hypothetically) for LNG tankers to travel, for example, to the Ukraine through the Bosphorus,"- Spenserova forecasts.
At the same time, she said, the hope of the European Union, headed by the EC Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, that South Stream can be revived is the recognition of our own mistakes and miscalculations. It now has no choice but to promise that it will decide to energy problems in South-Eastern Europe by 2019. However, Spenserova reminds, five years later none of those who now give these promises will be at their posts. Therefore, it is so easy to talk today. According to the analyst, a solid hopeless is in this.
She asks - what will happen during these five years? And she answers.
