Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline project is not slowing down and goes in line with Russia’s and Turkey’s interests but it requires elaboration, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview. "I cannot agree with your opinion that the TurkStream is slowing down. Such a large-scale project cannot be developed and agreed overnight," the president said, adding that "there are many legal, technical and economic, technological and organizational issues, including the number of the pipeline strings taking into account the actual need in gas acquisition and pumping volumes, which we have to decide together with our Turkish colleagues." Putin said the project is fully in the interests of both Russia and Turkey. "We are one on this with my Turkish colleague Recep Tayyip Erdogan," he said. The TurkStream would make it possible to deliver Russian natural gas to the border between Turkey and Greece, virtually to the border of the EU. The pipeline is an alternative to Russia's South Stream pipeline project to bring gas to Europe without crossing Ukraine, which was dropped last year due to objections from the European Commission.
