Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the proposed gas hub in Turkey could become a platform for determining the price of gas, which would eliminate the politicization of this issue.
"During the work of this hub, which we could create together, of course, it would also be a platform not only for supplies, but also for determining the price, because this is a very important issue - the issue of pricing," the Russian head of state said Thursday at talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"Today these prices are exorbitant, we could calmly regulate [them] at a normal market level, without any political coloration," Putin said.
The Russian president said he held consultations with the Turkish energy minister, Botas and Gazprom executives at the Russian Energy Week (REN) forum in Moscow on Wednesday. "I said this publicly: if there is interest from Turkey and our possible buyers in other countries, [we] could consider building another gas pipeline system and creating a gas hub in Turkey for sales to other countries, to third countries, primarily, of course, to European countries, if they are interested in this, of course," the Russian leader recalled.
On Wednesday, Putin spoke at the REN forum with the idea of creating a gas hub. He said that the lost volume of gas transit via Nord Stream in the Baltic Sea can be transferred to the Black Sea region, thus creating the largest gas hub in Europe in Turkey.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS