Peskov: Putin aware of Turkey’s possibility to stop Russian gas purchase

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed about the statement of his Turkish colleague Tayyip Erdogan about the possibility to stop Russian gas purchases. However, Russia hopes to maintain mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries, Dmitrii Peskov, press officer of Russian President, told journalists.

            The Russian government’s representative said that “the mutually beneficial cooperation is in the interests of the both countries.”

            He added that the military operation in Syria helps to safeguard saferty of the Turkish borders, which has not been achieved by the bombardments of the coalition led by the USA.

  Turkish President said earlier that Turkey could revise its gas cooperation with Russia. “Turkey is the main buyer of Russian gas. Turkey will be a great loss for Rusia. If necessary, Turkey could receive gas from many other sources. But this should not happen. Russia is our important trade partner and it needs to approach this issue with great sensitivity,” he said.

            The statement of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan concerning the Russian gas purchase is not as intimidating, as it is interpreted, said Aleksei Grivach, deputy chief of the National Energy Safety Fund. Russia and Turkey have had disagreements concerning Syria since long ago, the expert reminded. But elections are ahead and Erdogan needs to get additional political scores, what explains his statements about the Russian gas purchases.

            Sergei Pravosudov, Director of the National Energy Institute, agrees with his colleague. Erdogan needs to atrract new nationalist electorate to win elections, which will take place in three weeks. But if Erdogan’s party does win elections, this will not affect the real projects, Director of the Institute believes.

Grivach said that if intentions of Turkish President to reduce Russian gas purchases were real, then the statement would have been different. First we would have heard the country’s plans to change the portfolio of purchases for 10 years, because it is impossible to  suddenly stop Russian gas suplies, which constitute 55-60% of import. “There are contract obligations, we need new sources and the price of purchases is also very important,” said deputy chief of the Fund.