The Presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, respectively, officially launched on Wednesday the TurkStream natural gas pipeline designed to ship Russian gas to Turkey and markets in southeastern Europe. Through TurkStream , Russia’s gas giant Gazprom will carry pipeline gas to Turkey and south and southeastern Europe—a region already heavily dependent on Russian gas supplies. TurkStream consists of two lines—one to carry gas for the Turkish market, and another to ship the gas further westward on to Bulgaria, Serbia, and potentially Italy and Hungary. The official launch of the pipeline in Istanbul was also attended by the prime ministers of Bulgaria and Serbia, Boyko Borissov and Aleksandar Vucic, respectively, as well as by Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Gazprom’s management committee chairman Alexey Miller. “It is important for Bulgaria to receive gas from different sources at competitive prices,” Borissov said on Twitter after […]