Russian experts blast NabuccoBERLIN, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Russian experts strongly refuted claims by former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer that the Russian-launched South Stream pipeline is a purely political project that doesn't make economic sense.
Fischer, who is an adviser to the European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline consortium led by Germany's utility RWE, in an interview with German business daily Handelsblatt this week said the project was a political tool launched by the Kremlin to the detriment of Europe's interests.
The comments drew so much ire that state-owned Russian news agency RIA Novosti organized a video conference with Russian gas experts in Moscow, who commented on the interview to reporters in Berlin.
The experts strongly refuted Fischer's remarks. They're a sign that the consortium behind the Nabucco pipeline "seriously fears the competition from South Stream," Andrei Konoplyanik, an adviser to the board of the Gazprom Bank, said Thursday.
Rather, Nabucco, a project designed to make Europe less dependent on Russian energy imports, is unrealistic because it hasn't secured any gas deliveries yet, Konoplyanik said.
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