Putin and Erdogan are discussing Turkish Stream
The energy security and the gas supplies are still the main concern in the eastern part of Europe. Especially when the South stream project was rejected by Russia. Today the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed the new gas pipeline project - "Turkish Stream".
The leaders have talk about the project in a phone call, the Kremlin said in a statement on Tuesday, as Moscow continues to push for its new undersea pipeline to Europe.
Facing objections from the European Union, in December, Russia abandoned its $40 billion South Stream project which would have passed under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and carried up to 63 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas annually to Europe.
It has now pinned its hopes on Turkey, hoping to construct a Turkish Stream pipeline with the same capacity to an as-yet unbuilt hub on the Turkey-Greece border by the end of 2016.
Turkish officials have said the plans are unlikely to progress as quickly as Russia would like, given Ankara's concerns about overdependence on Russian energy.
However, the Kremlin statement said on Tuesday that Putin and Erdoğan discussed the project during a phone call, without giving further details.
Turkish presidential sources also told Reuters the two discussed developments in Ukraine, with Erdoğan saying he plans to visit Ukraine this week.
They also discussed the "events of 1915", the sources said, a reference to the killings of Armenians by Ottoman soldiers during World War One. The contested events continue to sour relations between Turkey and Armenia, a former Soviet republic.
Ankara accepts that many Armenians were killed in clashes, but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed in an act of genocide - a description used by some historians and governments.
Turkish concern about over-dependence on Russian energy, and an upcoming election, may mean Russia's plans for Turkish Stream are unlikely to advance as quickly as Moscow might like.
Source: Euractiv.com