RT: Severed Streams

Russia's decision to cancel South Stream came as a surprise, though it should not have been. Yet the pipeline's demise creates more questions than it answers – for Turkey and the Balkans more so than Europe and Russia.

A year after the ground-breaking ceremonies in Serbia and Bulgaria, the South Stream gas pipeline is no more. Monday's announcement by President Vladimir Putin – on a state visit to Turkey – that Russia was abandoning the project due to continued obstruction by the EU came as a shock and surprise to many. It shouldn't have been: Brussels has been against the pipeline from the very beginning, and Washington even more so.

South Stream was envisioned as a way to supply Central and Western Europe with Russian gas without the risk of Ukrainian obstruction. On several occasions – most recently in 2009 – Kiev's refusal to pay for gas caused interruptions in deliveries to Europe. Rather than, say, promote “regime change” in Kiev or set up a puppet government – the preferred solutions of its Western “partners” - Moscow decided to build bypassing pipelines. The first, Nord Stream, became operational in September 2011, linking Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea. South Stream was supposed to run through the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary into Austria and westward.  MORE