REUTERS
The president said that the supplies would continue "if they prove to be economically justified and feasible for economic actors."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, following talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has said that transit of Russian gas via Ukraine will continue after the construction and launch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
"I would like to say that the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine is not supposed to be suspended after Nord Stream 2 has been launched. We talked about this with the Federal Chancellor today," he said at a joint press conference in Sochi on May 18, according to an UNIAN correspondent in Russia.
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"We have always treated this project solely as an economic one, as a project, which was carried out by business entities. We have always placed it beyond any political process," Putin assured.
He also said that the supplies would continue "if they prove to be economically justified and feasible for economic actors."
UNIAN memo. The Nord Stream 2 project involves the construction of two strings of a gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year from the Russian coast via the Baltic Sea to Germany. A new pipeline is expected to be built next to Nord Stream 1.
The construction of Nord Stream 2 is to start in 2018 and end by late 2019.
Ukraine is against this construction.
According to Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev, Nord Stream 2 in no way contributes to the diversification of gas supplies to the EU and neither does it provide the European Union with access to new sources of gas.
Merkel said at a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on April 10 that she defends Ukraine's gas interests before Putin. According to the chancellor, Ukraine should not lose its significance as a gas transit country because of the Nord Stream 2 construction.