Czech News Agency: It’s all about South Stream, former PM says

The aim of the current Russian-Ukrainian crisis is to push through the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline that would bring Russian gas to Europe outside Ukraine, former Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek said at a meeting held by the Public Discussion Institute today.

It is similar to 2009, when the main aim was to push through the Nord Stream gas pipeline, he added. The energy crisis in 2009, when gas supplies via Ukraine to Europe were interrupted, had similar features as this year's crisis, Topolánek said.

"While in 2009 one of the crisis's main goals was to weaken the resistance of Sweden, Baltic countries and Poland to the construction of Nord Stream, which was then completed immediately, the main aim of this Russia-Ukraine crisis can be expected to be the enforcement of the South Stream construction," said Topolánek (prime minister in 2006–09), who headed the Czech government during the gas crisis at the time.
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