First comments from Russia

Turkey has replaced Ukraine since Russia declared the suspension of the long-planned South Stream project in early December 2014. In other words: Russia is going to build a new pipeline via Turkey, called the ?Turkish Stream,? which will transport Russian gas to Europe via Turkey instead of Ukraine.
Will this new pipeline make Turkey more dependent on Russia? How will it affect Turkey?s relations with the U.S. and Russia?

Last week, I tried to learn the answers to these questions from the American side, having a conversation with retired Ambassador Richard Morningstar, who served as Special Advisor for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy for President Bill Clinton and afterward as Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy for President Barack Obama.

Now it?s Russia?s turn. In order to learn Moscow?s perspective, I had an in-depth conversation with Russia?s Consul General to Istanbul Alexey Erkhov.

My first question was: Why did Russia cancel the South Stream? ?We wanted to build the pipeline, but the conditions set by the European Commission made it impossible to implement it? he says.

So are they not trying to give a political message to Europe because of the Ukraine crisis and the sanctions? ?This is purely a commercial decision. The message is clear: we have gas. If you want it, you get it. You don?t want it? Then we have some other ideas in mind. We will cooperate with Turkey.?

After saying that ?some people? overestimate the political importance of gas trade, Erkhov quotes the following statement by Morningstar: ?It doesn?t make sense for Turkey to become more dependent on Russia.? Saying that ?this is akin to advice,? Erkhov continues: ?Turkey wants to buy Russian gas and Russia wants to sell gas to Turkey. This is very...