Medvedev in hurry for new gas pipelines: Bulgarian TV

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for the speedy completion of two new gas pipelines that bypass Ukraine in an interview with Bulgarian national television Friday.

“The new energy routes such as the South Stream and the Nord Stream pipelines have to be speeded up,” Medvedev said during an interview from his Meiendorf Castle official residence.
“If we can diversify supplies, Europe will depend less on the whims of the political regime in one country or another,” he said according to the BNT channel.

Medvedev reiterated Russia’s position that it was not responsible for the two-week halt in deliveries of natural gas to Europe in January amid a pricing row with Ukraine.

“Judicial responsibility has to be brought against the party that is really to blame for not respecting its contract,” he said, adding that he wanted to see the creation of an “international legal control mechanism.”

On Wednesday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged the World Economic Forum in Davos to set up an international legal framework for energy security, saying it could prove as important as the 1951 European Coal and Steel Community accord which led to the European Union.

AFP