MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament said Wednesday there was a possibility for supporters of a model of a unipolar world to pressure countries involved in the South Stream natural gas pipeline project.
"During the implementation of such great infrastructure projects as South Stream appear various risks and, there is currently, obviously, a risk of pressure by, as one would say, one of our partners who thinks of a unipolar world model, and those reflections as well as political and geopolitical ideals are able to pressure our partners with whom we have reached agreements on joint work on this project," Sergei Naryshkin said during a televised interview on Russia’s Rossiya-24 channel.
Last week, the European Union commissioner said the EU had hardened its stance on the construction of South Stream in light of events in Ukraine. Some European leaders have called for energy sanctions against Russia, potentially including a complete embargo on Russian gas, if Moscow interferes with the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine on May 25.
Naryshkin said the work on South Stream was proceeding according to plan, and all agreements were in place to start its construction in Serbia this year.
"The plan sets actual ground work for 2014, and 2016 should see the first gas deliveries, with Serbia getting first revenues from Russian gas transit in 2016," he said.
The construction of the Bulgarian part of the pipeline is also ready to begin, he added.
The 15.5-billion-euro South Stream gas pipeline to Austria is designed to cut Russia’s dependence on the Ukrainian transit system. Russian energy giant Gazprom has said it would announce the final South Stream pipeline route this summer.
Gazprom is considering three routes for the project: through Bulgaria to Serbia, Hungary and Austria; through Bulgaria to Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria and Italy; or through Bulgaria and Greece to the south of Italy.
Russia annually pumps about 100 billion cubic meters of gas to European countries via Ukraine, 80 percent of its total gas supplies to Europe.
