Moscow and Ankara are considering measures to protect the route of Russian gas supplies to Turkey, as there is a potential threat to it, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
The Kremlin spokesman said that Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan were planning to strengthen control and anti-terrorist protection of the gas pipeline between the two countries. "There is such a need, there is a potential threat," Peskov explained.
Earlier on Thursday, the Center for Public Relations of the Russian Federal Security Service told TASS that an attempt by Ukrainian special services to commit a sabotage and terrorist act on the South Stream gas pipeline (referring to the section of the Southern Corridor gas transportation system), which supplies energy to Turkey and Europe, was prevented. The special service noted that Russian citizens involved in the preparation and resourcing of the attack had been detained. Four magnetic mines, 4 kilograms of plastic explosives, delayed detonators, communication equipment, including correspondence and negotiations with the supervisor of the Ukrainian special services, instructions for assembling and installing the explosive device and coordinates of the place of detonation in the Volgograd region were seized.
Supplies to Turkey
Russia supplies gas to Turkey through two pipelines across the Black Sea. Blue Stream was put into operation at the beginning of 2003 with the annual design capacity of 16 billion cubic meters of gas and the total length of 1,213 km. The Turkish Stream export gas pipeline consists of two strings, one of which is designed for gas supplies to Turkish consumers, the second - for gas supplies to the countries of Southern and South-Eastern Europe. The total capacity of Turkish Stream is 31.5 billion cubic meters. The pipeline started to operate in January 2020.
In 2021, Gazprom delivered a record volume of gas to Turkey through Blue Stream - 15.98 billion cubic meters. Last year the supplies to Turkey through Turkish Stream have been increased by 63%, the holding noted. In total, according to the Federal Customs Service of Russia, the supply of natural gas from Russia to Turkey in 2021 amounted to 26.76 billion cubic meters.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS