Moscow Times: Austria Gas Deal Threatens Europe's Push Away From Gazprom

While officials in Brussels were calling for Europe to reduce its dependency on Russian natural gas and negotiate with Moscow as a bloc, Austria was quietly bypassing the European Commission to cut its own bilateral deal on building a pipeline.

The deal on the South Stream pipeline, which will be built under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and on to other parts of Europe, shows the European Union's inability to create a unified energy policy on Moscow during the Ukraine crisis.

While EU officials are calling for Europe to wean itself off Russian gas, private and state-owned firms, with the support of politicians, are pushing ahead with projects to buy even more.

Austrian energy firm OMV agreed last week with Russia's state-controlled Gazprom to bring the South Stream pipeline to Austria's Baumgarten gas hub, outmaneuvering Italy which had wanted it to end there.
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