Bloomberg: Putin Bets on Germany as Gas Ties With Turkey Sour on Syria

It’s taken less than a year for Russian President Vladimir Putin to go from hailing Turkey as a potential linchpin in natural gas supplies to Europe to shunning it.

As the nations fall out over the conflict in Syria, Moscow-based Gazprom PJSC, the world’s largest gas producer, said last week it would cut the capacity of a planned link to Turkey and on to Europe by 50 percent. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Russia last week that energy cooperation could suffer because of the former Soviet nation’s violation of his country’s airspace and military buildup in the region.

That’s a far cry from last year, when Putin said Turkey could become an energy hub for southern Europe as the proposed link under the Black Sea would help Russia reduce its dependence on gas transit via Ukraine, the current route for more than 10 percent of Europe’s gas. 

Putin feels able to change tack on Turkey, the second-largest customer for Russian gas, because in September he agreed to expand the Nord Stream pipeline that links Russia directly with Germany.

Read the full article HERE.