Putin Tempts Turkey To Be Europe's New Gas Hub

Russian President Vladimir Putin has doubled down on his proposal to turn Turkey into a gas hub for Europe after deliveries to Germany through the Baltic Sea's Nord Stream pipeline were halted, Suzan Fraser and Dasha Litvinova reported for Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: It’s the second unlikely energy proposal that Putin has pitched in as many days, with European leaders calling Russia’s cuts in natural gas a political bid to divide them over their support for Ukraine.

Putin floated the idea of exporting more gas through the Turk Stream gas pipeline running beneath the Black Sea to Turkey as he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the sidelines of a regional summit in Kazakhstan.

Germany earlier rejected Putin’s proposal to step up gas flows to Europe via a link of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea – a pipeline that has never been operational. Moscow has cut off the parallel Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline over what it claimed were technical problems.

It’s the second unlikely energy proposal that Putin has pitched in as many days, with European leaders calling Russia’s cuts in natural gas a political bid to divide them over their support for Ukraine.

It’s created an energy crisis heading into winter that has fueled inflation, forced some industries to cut production, and sent utility bills soaring.

“This is just another attempt by Russia to use gas as a geo-strategic tool to weaken EU and NATO countries,” said Simone Tagliapietra, an energy policy expert at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.

Russia was "tempting Turkey to becoming an energy hub — a long-lasting strategic aim of the country — while trying to create new divisions among European countries,” the analyst said, adding that Putin's strategy was not likely to succeed.

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