Putin’s “Turkish Stream” fiasco

The “Turkish Stream” idea provides additional evidence of Putin’s self-delusion in foreign policy.


Article by Vitaliy Portnikov for Euromaidan Press:

Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to meet with his Turkish colleague Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an attempt to salvage one of his own ventures — the Turkish Stream project.

In Moscow they call this project Putin’s personal initiative, which has not been seriously worked out with experts and which has become proof of the self-delusion that Putin demonstrates in conducting the foreign policy of his country. Putin was furious that the EU had not allowed Russia to build the South Stream gas pipeline without fulfilling the relevant EU’s requirements and so he decided to “punish” the Europeans. Without any prior consultation with other project participants, he announced the suspension of the negotiations and the construction of the South Stream while putting forward the Turkish Stream alternative instead.

From the very beginning it was unclear how Turkish Stream was supposed to function, since Putin argued that the European countries needed to build the gas delivery infrastructure from the Turkish borders themselves and existing agreements did not provide for it. Nevertheless, preparations for the construction began and Putin even promised that Russia would participate in building sections of the gas pipeline in Greece........................

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