Transit of Russian natural gas via Ukraine will be reduced to just about 10-12 billion cubic meters annually after the completion of two new pipelines—Turkish Stream and Nord Stream 2. That’s what Gazprom’s chief executive Alexei Miller told a Russian TV channel yesterday, confirming Kiev’s fears that Nord Stream 2 will deprive it of a lot of income in the form of transit fees. The significance of the new figure can easily be seen when compared with the transit quantities for last month: Gazprom sent 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas via Russia’s eastern neighbor in March, a 21.3-percent increase on the year. In other words, when Turkish Stream and Nord Stream 2 are ready, Ukraine will receive something like a 12th of its current annual gas transit revenues from Gazprom. This is reason enough for Kiev to be so vocally against Nord Steam 2, but unfortunately for Ukraine, […]