Kyiv has perked up: Russia does not have time to complete the construction of Nord Stream 2 this year
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will start operating no earlier than mid-2020, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak told reporters about this.
“In the middle of next year,” he said, answering the question of when the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will start operating, TASS reports.
Kozak did not specify in what month this could happen.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak previously told reporters that gas supplies through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline could begin in the coming months, perhaps even before the end of 2019.
To date, Nord Stream 2 is more than 80% completed. The project completion date for the work was previously expected to be this year, 2019. Thus, the reason for the change in tone of official Kyiv’s statements during the ongoing gas negotiations becomes clear. In a situation where the Russian Federation does not have time to lay a bypass gas pipeline before the end of the year, it will be forced to extend gas transit to the EU through Ukraine for at least another year. Thus, Ukraine receives an additional leverage point in these negotiations.
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