Itar-Tass: South Stream suspended under US pressure to EU's detriment
Bulgaria has suspended construction of the South Stream pipeline by the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom in its territory under direct pressure from Washington, say Russian experts. The US neither consumes Russian gas nor supplies shale gas to the EU, but has its own economic interests in Europe.
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday a third force had interfered with the construction of South Stream: “Some countries that cannot be suspected of sympathizing with Russia’s partnership with the EU want to use this initiative to disrupt the energy dialogue.”
“It is in the US interests to preserve the Ukrainian gas transportation system as the key one for gas supplies to the EU, as a part of it will be held by US companies,” the director general of the Institute of Energy Strategy, Vitaly Bushuyev, told ITAR-TASS political analysis centre. “The US does not want Russian gas in Europe in order to stake out this place for its own shale gas in the future.”