Putin says Russia will scrap South Stream pipeline.

Source: ap

Russia is scrapping the South Stream natural gas pipeline project and may cooperate with Turkey instead on building a gas hub for southern Europe, President Vladimir Putin said Monday.

Putin pointed at the European Union's refusal to give the go-ahead for the multibillion project, saying that has left Moscow no other options. The project would have involved running a pipeline under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and further on to southern Europe.

However, Moscow will boost gas supplies to Turkey across the existing pipeline and later could build a new link and eventually work with Turkey on creating a hub for natural gas supplies on the border with Greece, he said.

The announcement came at a time when Russia-West ties are at their lowest point since the Cold War over Ukraine. The United States and the European Union have slapped economic sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and support for a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Turkey, a NATO-member which is vying for European Union membership, has however, been keen to increase exports to Russia even though the two nations have striking differences over the crisis in Syria and Ukraine.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/957862a148154d40acf04bb13a3b2bde/putin-visit-turkey-amid-syria-differences