BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — The implementation of major investment projects, such as the Turkish Stream and the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, are not being suspended by Russia's recent government decree on economic measures against Turkey, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Tuesday.
"As for major investment projects, there are no decisions yet to freeze them or to suspend funding. Therefore we believe that they are operating the same way they did before the adoption of this government decree," Ulyukayev said.
The Russian government published a decree on special economic measures against Turkey earlier in the day, including a ban on charter flights and certain food imports. The work of the joint Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation was also suspended.
Media reports cited sources in the Russian energy company Gazprom as suggesting that the proposed Turkish Stream gas pipeline project may be suspended. The company itself declined to officially comment on the information.
"This is a matter for economic entities such as Gazprom and Rosatom. A government decree does not mean that they would stop working," Ulyukayev stressed.
The published decree suspends the work of an intergovernmental trade and economic cooperation commission chaired by the two countries’ energy ministers.
The Turkish Stream pipeline is expected to run beneath the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey. A gas hub on the Greek-Turkish border is planned to receive an annual 47 billion cubic meters of gas, while the full capacity of the pipeline will total 63 billion cubic meters.
The Greek leg of the project is estimated to cost approximately $2.3 billion and construction is expected to commence by late 2016 and be completed by late 2019.
Russia and Turkey signed an agreement in 2010 to construct and operate Turkey’s first nuclear power plant at a site in Akkuyu in the southern province of Mersin. Earlier in November, a senior Turkish Energy Ministry official said that the first reactor of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant would be put into operation by 2022 at the latest.
