Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Thursday agreed to work to bring forward the start date for a pipeline seen as a rival to an EU-backed project, in talks with his Italian and Turkish counterparts. Putin met in his home city of Saint Petersburg with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after a late-night meeting the day earlier, cementing their close personal rapport and good ties between Moscow and Rome.
The two men also spoke by video-link with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a meeting which was marked by friendly chatter about recent football games as well as pipeline politics. Putin said there was a chance the South Stream pipeline, being developed by Russian gas giant Gazprom and Italy's Eni, would be finished before its official start-up date of 2013.
South Stream aims to pump Russian gas to Europe via a new route under the Black Sea and into Bulgaria, using Turkish waters to bypass Ukraine, with whom Russia has a tricky relationship. "Silvio has set us a tough task with South Stream, that it has to be built before Nord Stream in the Baltic Sea," said Putin, according to a transcript of the video-call posted on the Russian government website.
Nord Stream, another Gazprom-led undersea pipeline project, is to connect Russia to Germany's Baltic coast via the territorial waters of Nordic states and is due to be completed in 2012. "It's a challenge that we have to take," Berlusconi was quoted as saying.
"We really can accept this challenge because we have experience in building Blue Stream," added Putin, referring to another joint Eni-Gazprom pipeline built under the Black Sea that carries Russian gas to Turkey. Berlusconi started the video-call in typically flamboyant style by telling Erdogan: "Tayyip, I embrace you strongly and hope you will start by congratulating me on AC Milan's victory over Real Madrid on Wednesday." Erdogan duly complimented "dear Silvio" on the victory. Putin meanwhile celebrated Russian side Rubin Kazan's victory over Barcelona this week, noting that the winning goal had been scored by a Turk.