Russia and Turkey agree to pipeline deal!

ISTANBUL, Turkey (PNN) - October 10, 2016 - For the third time in three months, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Istanbul.

The result of this meeting is a Gas Pipeline Deal that bypasses Ukraine.

Russia and Turkey have put tensions over Syria behind them to agree a gas pipeline deal that would open a new route for Russian energy to western Europe.

The TurkStream agreement between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Monday would, if implemented, redraw the energy map of Europe by allowing Russia to bypass some of its gas around Ukraine.

It would also strengthen ties between Moscow and Ankara at a time of growing mistrust between Turkey and the west in the wake of the coup attempt that plunged the country into turmoil three months ago and killed 270 people.

Monday’s agreement committed the pair to construction of two lines of pipes beneath Turkish waters on the bed of the Black Sea, with a combined capacity of 30 billion cubic meters of gas. One would serve the Turkish market and the other the rest of Europe.

TurkStream, to be operated by Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas monopoly, was proposed by Putin two years ago as a replacement for the abandoned South Stream pipeline that had involved cooperation between Russia and several EU countries.

Talks faltered after the crisis triggered by the shooting down of a Russian Su-24 warplane by Turkish forces over the Syrian border in November 2015. But relations have thawed rapidly since June when Erdogan voiced regret for the downing of the Russian jet.

Since then, Turkey has railed against Washington’s refusal to immediately extradite Fethullah Gulen, the exiled Islamic cleric accused of masterminding the coup plot, a claim he strongly denies. It has also been riled by Western warnings about the scale of the post-putsch crackdown that has seen more than 100,000 people sacked or dismissed from their jobs.

Despite their detente, Putin and Erdogan remain deeply at odds over Syria. Though Turkey has softened its previous demand for the immediate departure of President Bashar al-Assad, it remains a key supporter of rebel forces that are battling the Syrian armed forces and their allies, while Russia is one of the Syrian president’s staunchest allies.