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Russian gas pipeline 'unstoppable': report

Published: 7 Mar 11 08:27 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/32434/20110307/

Swedish objections to a controversial pipeline to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany along the Baltic Sea floor fell on deaf ears in Russia, according to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.

Russia's president at the time, Vladimir Putin, and other power brokers in Russia had no intention to listening to criticisms or protests coming from any direction when it came to the construction of the Nord Stream pipeline, the WikiLeaks documents show.

The pipeline was going to be built no matter what, according to confidential US embassy documents made available by the whistleblower website, the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper reports.

In a report from the US embassy in Moscow, the EU coordinator with Russia's foreign ministry, Dmitri Polyanski, said back in 2007 that the pipeline would be built regardless of noisy protests from Poland, Estonia, and Sweden.

"It can't be stopped. Not even by a big EU country like Poland," he said.

Sweden approved the Nord Stream project in November 2009. It is projected to supply 25 million European households with natural gas from Russia.

The most vociferous protests to the 1200 kilometre long Nord Stream pipeline had to do with the project's potential environmental impact on sensitive marine environments along the Baltc Sea floor.

By shutting off gas supplies through Ukraine in 2009, Russia was able to show how things might be without the Nord Stream supply line, other documents show.

Officially, however, the gas supplies were shut down due to theft taking place in Ukraine.

"The Kremlin obviously has a commercial goal in the dispute, among them the secure European support for Nord Stream," one analyst to the US ambassador in Moscow in 2009.

TT/The Local/dl (news@thelocal.se)

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09:21 March 7, 2011 by Liquidmonkey
and the hits just keep coming.

well done wikileaks!
09:58 March 7, 2011 by Nemesis
Sweden was only publicly objecting, to sound like bigshots to the Swedish electorate.

The electorate in Sweden have not yet figured out Sweden is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, even around the Baltic let alone Euope or the rest of the planet.
10:44 March 7, 2011 by johnny1939
didn't realize there were any sensitive marine life left in the Baltic so this will not help I am sure. I would hate to rely on the russkies for anything and only bad things will come out of this at some point or another. Thanks wikileaks you do have a slot to fill.
15:13 March 7, 2011 by SarahPalin
WikiLeaks - For The Win!
17:00 March 7, 2011 by McChatter
How hypocritcal can the Swedes get?! First they chuck all sorts of military rubbish in the Baltic and now they're concerned about a gas pipeline. They're just p!ssed off that there are no Swedish companies involved in Nord Sream. Our previous mayor was frightened that our coastal town would be wiped out if the pipeline started leaking. The pipeline will come to lie about 40 kms. from the coast. Must be good stuff, that Russian gas!

@The Local. "..no intention to.." should read "..no intention of.."
07:44 March 8, 2011 by Zhorka
Well done, Russia.
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