Nord Stream expansion to do 'great harm' to Ukraine

The European Union does not need a new Nord Stream gas pipeline that Russia's gas behemoth Gazprom is planning to build, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius said, adding that the project will do great harm to Ukraine.

"First of all, the European Union does not need it all. Russian supplies now come via three channels. These are the Nord Stream, the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which runs through Belarus, and the so-called Ukraine transit gas pipeline. If they double supplies via Nord Stream, then the goal is practically more political than economic, (which is) to completely neutralize the Ukraine transit pipeline," the minister told BNS.

"That would cause great harm to Ukraine. It would lose a great deal of transit revenues and that would unbalance gas distribution in Europe," he said.

http://en.delfi.lt/central-eastern-europe/nord-stream-expansion-to-do-great-harm-to-ukraine.d?id=68440122