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Russia's South Stream move empowers Turkey

By redirecting the South Stream pipeline toward Turkey, Moscow has “outsourced” the project to Ankara, a much tougher negotiator to face the Europeans.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) is pictured during a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara December 1, 2014. Putin said on Monday that Moscow could not carry on with the South Stream project if the European Union was opposed to it. Speaking at a joint news conference with Turkish President Erdogan, Putin said the European Commission was reluctant to give the green light to the South Stream project.  REUTERS/Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin (TURKEY - Tags: PO

Russia's decision to redirect the South Stream pipeline toward Turkey came as a shock to many European nations. The European Union's attempts to bargain more concessions from Russians by being intractable on various technical aspects had the opposite effect. Those who pinned their hopes on the project as a source of energy stability were left puzzled and discontented. Although Moscow's move can be interpreted in many ways, it fits into Russia's larger strategy in contemporary international politics.

The idea to empower other crucial regional states to create a multipolar world has long been on Russia's global agenda, and it has recently signed milestone deals with China, Turkey and India during visits by President Vladimir Putin.

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