"South Stream in our interest, Serbia no big player"

The Russian invasion in Ukraine opened eyes to many Europeans, something what was lacking in the last years ever since the invasion of Georgia. Southstream is one of Moscow's main pillars of aggression and must be terminated. Finally, Europe is taking the right steps to do so and parallelly setting up alternative methods e.g. LNG or different supply line. It is good to see that the TAP pipeline is already countering that aggressive attempt and I'm confident that we will hear Southstreams death in the next days. Good riddance!

@Slava

you said that EU would collapse within months if Serbia and Bulgaria turned towards Russia? Hahahahaha hahahahaha are u serious? Serbia who isn't even in EU to begin with, and a dirt poor Bulgaria who only benefited from EU, they never contributed in any way. Now do the math again, let them go towards Russia, who cares? 2 less problems for EU to deal with. You have got to be high as a f*&(%(* kite.

In Italy no one is betting on this project anymore unless the situation in Ukraine will return normal and that is considered a fayry tale for the moment...

Serbia Bulgaria should drop the EU like a pile of you know what and get assurances from Ruusia about their defense and economic support for doing so. Russia could easily give these 2 rather small countries special economic incentives and buy their way back as a SuperPower for bargin. The local population is staunchly pro Russia anyhow and it would be very easy to wipe out any western puppet parties and organizations. That would trigger a catalismic chain reaction and the EU would collapse within a few months. Game over... Frankenstein is dead.

Serbia Bulgaria should drop the EU like a pile of you know what and get assurances from Ruusia about their defense and economic support for doing so. Russia could easily give these 2 rather small countries special economic incentives and buy their way back as a SuperPower for bargin. The local population is staunchly pro Russia anyhow and it would be very easy to wipe out any western puppet parties and organizations. That would trigger a catalismic chain reaction and the EU would collapse within a few months. Game over... Frankenstein is dead.
(SlavaRossya, 9 April 2014 15:56)

Congrats, You have got to be one of the stupidest, if not thee stupidest commentator to this site! Bulgaria & Serbia drop the EU, and the EU will crumble? Why, how? What does Bulgaria & Serbia do to keep the EU afloat? I've heard it all, well at least the EU has the opportunity to find out who really is a true partner, or continues to be a Russian satellite state!!! As for Russia giving Serbia & Bulgaria assurances & special economic incentives, we all witnessed first hand for 50 years, of those special incentives! 100s of starving people, waiting in line for days for a few loafs of bread, because their was no flour to produce more! As for the EU in general, the USA has always been their for Europe, in times of need! TAP, is were the future is, and were the EU's economic stability lies!!!

Lignite or Rosebud Coal is really poor. You can't viabley bake it to make coke for steel. All it is good for is burning and it takes energy to extract it, ship it via rail, unload it, and stockpile it. The extraction (mining) is not environmentally friendly. it burns well, but not cleanly and it causes greenhouse gases, so much so that it requires expensive scrubbers and the EU environmental regulations are such that there is not much future in it. Nobody is going to switch from Natural Gas to coal unless they can't get it, or they can't afford it.


The only viable alternative to Natural Gas today is Hydro and Nuclear Power . Unfortunately neither Massive Hydro Dams or Nuclear Power plants are politically possible today. If the Europeans stop buying Russian Gas, they will pay more for dirtier energy and Russia will sell its gas to Asia. Chinese Energy Demands increase daily.

None of these threats come from economists, just politicians. They are not real

I have been saying this for a while, and the serb diaspora didn't want to believe it. The EU dependance on Russian gas is already way too high, and will be drasticly cut back in the years to come. There will be no need for South-Stram any longer, and whatever gas Europe gets from Russia, can easily be pumped through the existing pipelines.
The big loosers in this renewed east-west conflict will be Russia and Serbia. Serbia can't go on and pretend it will be neutral, when everybody knows that Nicolic and quite a few of the other Serb leaders more or less openly support Russia, and repeat one of their mantras 'Russia and Serbia are brother states' whenever they can, like Nicolic did in his interview with Die Presse this last weekend. His statements make it perfectly clear where he stands, and that will have consequences when it comes to recieving support from the West. He might think by playing the Russian card, the EU would get scared and support whatever crazy idea he has, but the oposite will happen. South-Stram seems to be a dead project soon, and Serbia once more shot itself in the foot by being on the wrong side.

SlavaRossya, 9 April 2014 15:56)
Wow, Serbia turning toward Russia would cause the entire EU to collapse. Not much anyone can say to that statement.

"it would be very easy to wipe out any western puppet parties and organizations"
(SlavaRossya, 9 April 2014 15:56)
.....and replace them with russian puppet parties and organizations

(John, 9 April 2014 16:51)

The problem is, when you say "the Europeans", you pretend as if this is one unified group. Yes the EUrocrats in Brussels would probably like the EU to be a United States of Europe, however this pipe dream is looking unrealistic by the day. The EU is falling apart and the UK will be the first (but not last) country to leave it.

@ john

john = internet spam troll

@ Ratko

Cry me river, baby! Say goodbye to Southstream and the fact that you, once again, put your money on the losing horse called Russia.

Xaxaxaxaxa :-)

"the project was important not only for Russia but also for Europe"

Hardly - South Steam won't be bringing any new gas to Europe, its only purpose was to by-pass Ukraine and deliver the same gas, and now that Europe and the US have promised to support Ukraine economically, it makes absolutely no sense to deprive it of a major source of income.

As for Nabucco, it was voted down by the investors in favor of TAP, but if needed in the future, the project could be revived. On the other hand, Europe has been cutting its dependence on Russian gas ever since Putin closed the valve in the middle of winter a few years back, so it may be a while before Europe needs large additional quantities of the stuff. And it's not as though Russia is the only country with gas fields, in any case.

As for Bulgaria and Serbia going ahead with South Stream against the EU's wishes - just whom would they be selling the gas to? The plan was not merely to supply the two countries with gas, but to deliver it throughout Europe. With no market, there's not going to be any pipeline. (Bulgaria is already onboard for an interconnector from TAP - they'll be assured of gas even without South Stream.)

Russians call Bulgaria for Russia's Troyan horse in EU :)

South Stream WILL be built and as for US shale, just a pipe dream like scrapped Nabucco, just another lie trying to divert us good Slavs from our righteous path!

@ Amer :
""the project was important not only for Russia but also for Europe"
"Hardly - South Steam won't be bringing any new gas to Europe, its only purpose was to by-pass Ukraine and ..."
(Amer, 10 April 2014 23:50)"

1)South stream won't give new gaz to europe , of course not .But it will bring cheaper and more secure gaz for southern europe , because , it will bypass Ukraine!And it will give rights of passage to Bulgaria and Serbia.
2) The USA and the UE have promised to help Ukraine?But the UE don't exist politically , it is not as state , they
aren't strong enough to put pressure on Russia! And the USA have more urgent problems to solve in the middle east , latin america, and Asia than to compete with Russia!
3)Russia is not the only country with gaz fields .Yes , but it is the biggest .
There is qatar , but qatari LNG is more expensive than Russia's gas .
And there is Iran , but the Iranians will sell their gaz at a high price!Because of the EU's economic sanctions on Iran ,and the west's support to Saddam Hussein's regime during the iran-Iraq war!
There is the Nabbuco project , but it will need a lot of years before it is finished , if it a restart one day .And it will not be sufficient to replace Russia's exports to the UE!
4) Apart from Bulgaria and Serbia , the South Stream project will sell gaz to : Macedonia , Greece, Hungary , Croatia , Slovenia , Bosnia, Austria , Italy ,perhaps Switzerland .

Serbia Bulgaria should drop the EU like a pile of you know what and get assurances from Ruusia about their defense and economic support for doing so. Russia could easily give these 2 rather small countries special economic incentives and buy their way back as a SuperPower for bargin. The local population is staunchly pro Russia anyhow and it would be very easy to wipe out any western puppet parties and organizations. That would trigger a catalismic chain reaction and the EU would collapse within a few months. Game over... Frankenstein is dead.

The Russian invasion in Ukraine opened eyes to many Europeans, something what was lacking in the last years ever since the invasion of Georgia. Southstream is one of Moscow's main pillars of aggression and must be terminated. Finally, Europe is taking the right steps to do so and parallelly setting up alternative methods e.g. LNG or different supply line. It is good to see that the TAP pipeline is already countering that aggressive attempt and I'm confident that we will hear Southstreams death in the next days. Good riddance!

I have been saying this for a while, and the serb diaspora didn't want to believe it. The EU dependance on Russian gas is already way too high, and will be drasticly cut back in the years to come. There will be no need for South-Stram any longer, and whatever gas Europe gets from Russia, can easily be pumped through the existing pipelines.
The big loosers in this renewed east-west conflict will be Russia and Serbia. Serbia can't go on and pretend it will be neutral, when everybody knows that Nicolic and quite a few of the other Serb leaders more or less openly support Russia, and repeat one of their mantras 'Russia and Serbia are brother states' whenever they can, like Nicolic did in his interview with Die Presse this last weekend. His statements make it perfectly clear where he stands, and that will have consequences when it comes to recieving support from the West. He might think by playing the Russian card, the EU would get scared and support whatever crazy idea he has, but the oposite will happen. South-Stram seems to be a dead project soon, and Serbia once more shot itself in the foot by being on the wrong side.

@Slava

you said that EU would collapse within months if Serbia and Bulgaria turned towards Russia? Hahahahaha hahahahaha are u serious? Serbia who isn't even in EU to begin with, and a dirt poor Bulgaria who only benefited from EU, they never contributed in any way. Now do the math again, let them go towards Russia, who cares? 2 less problems for EU to deal with. You have got to be high as a f*&(%(* kite.

(John, 9 April 2014 16:51)

The problem is, when you say "the Europeans", you pretend as if this is one unified group. Yes the EUrocrats in Brussels would probably like the EU to be a United States of Europe, however this pipe dream is looking unrealistic by the day. The EU is falling apart and the UK will be the first (but not last) country to leave it.

@ john

john = internet spam troll

Serbia Bulgaria should drop the EU like a pile of you know what and get assurances from Ruusia about their defense and economic support for doing so. Russia could easily give these 2 rather small countries special economic incentives and buy their way back as a SuperPower for bargin. The local population is staunchly pro Russia anyhow and it would be very easy to wipe out any western puppet parties and organizations. That would trigger a catalismic chain reaction and the EU would collapse within a few months. Game over... Frankenstein is dead.
(SlavaRossya, 9 April 2014 15:56)

Congrats, You have got to be one of the stupidest, if not thee stupidest commentator to this site! Bulgaria & Serbia drop the EU, and the EU will crumble? Why, how? What does Bulgaria & Serbia do to keep the EU afloat? I've heard it all, well at least the EU has the opportunity to find out who really is a true partner, or continues to be a Russian satellite state!!! As for Russia giving Serbia & Bulgaria assurances & special economic incentives, we all witnessed first hand for 50 years, of those special incentives! 100s of starving people, waiting in line for days for a few loafs of bread, because their was no flour to produce more! As for the EU in general, the USA has always been their for Europe, in times of need! TAP, is were the future is, and were the EU's economic stability lies!!!

SlavaRossya, 9 April 2014 15:56)
Wow, Serbia turning toward Russia would cause the entire EU to collapse. Not much anyone can say to that statement.

"it would be very easy to wipe out any western puppet parties and organizations"
(SlavaRossya, 9 April 2014 15:56)
.....and replace them with russian puppet parties and organizations

@ Ratko

Cry me river, baby! Say goodbye to Southstream and the fact that you, once again, put your money on the losing horse called Russia.

Xaxaxaxaxa :-)

In Italy no one is betting on this project anymore unless the situation in Ukraine will return normal and that is considered a fayry tale for the moment...

Russians call Bulgaria for Russia's Troyan horse in EU :)

South Stream WILL be built and as for US shale, just a pipe dream like scrapped Nabucco, just another lie trying to divert us good Slavs from our righteous path!

@ Amer :
""the project was important not only for Russia but also for Europe"
"Hardly - South Steam won't be bringing any new gas to Europe, its only purpose was to by-pass Ukraine and ..."
(Amer, 10 April 2014 23:50)"

1)South stream won't give new gaz to europe , of course not .But it will bring cheaper and more secure gaz for southern europe , because , it will bypass Ukraine!And it will give rights of passage to Bulgaria and Serbia.
2) The USA and the UE have promised to help Ukraine?But the UE don't exist politically , it is not as state , they
aren't strong enough to put pressure on Russia! And the USA have more urgent problems to solve in the middle east , latin america, and Asia than to compete with Russia!
3)Russia is not the only country with gaz fields .Yes , but it is the biggest .
There is qatar , but qatari LNG is more expensive than Russia's gas .
And there is Iran , but the Iranians will sell their gaz at a high price!Because of the EU's economic sanctions on Iran ,and the west's support to Saddam Hussein's regime during the iran-Iraq war!
There is the Nabbuco project , but it will need a lot of years before it is finished , if it a restart one day .And it will not be sufficient to replace Russia's exports to the UE!
4) Apart from Bulgaria and Serbia , the South Stream project will sell gaz to : Macedonia , Greece, Hungary , Croatia , Slovenia , Bosnia, Austria , Italy ,perhaps Switzerland .

Lignite or Rosebud Coal is really poor. You can't viabley bake it to make coke for steel. All it is good for is burning and it takes energy to extract it, ship it via rail, unload it, and stockpile it. The extraction (mining) is not environmentally friendly. it burns well, but not cleanly and it causes greenhouse gases, so much so that it requires expensive scrubbers and the EU environmental regulations are such that there is not much future in it. Nobody is going to switch from Natural Gas to coal unless they can't get it, or they can't afford it.


The only viable alternative to Natural Gas today is Hydro and Nuclear Power . Unfortunately neither Massive Hydro Dams or Nuclear Power plants are politically possible today. If the Europeans stop buying Russian Gas, they will pay more for dirtier energy and Russia will sell its gas to Asia. Chinese Energy Demands increase daily.

None of these threats come from economists, just politicians. They are not real

"the project was important not only for Russia but also for Europe"

Hardly - South Steam won't be bringing any new gas to Europe, its only purpose was to by-pass Ukraine and deliver the same gas, and now that Europe and the US have promised to support Ukraine economically, it makes absolutely no sense to deprive it of a major source of income.

As for Nabucco, it was voted down by the investors in favor of TAP, but if needed in the future, the project could be revived. On the other hand, Europe has been cutting its dependence on Russian gas ever since Putin closed the valve in the middle of winter a few years back, so it may be a while before Europe needs large additional quantities of the stuff. And it's not as though Russia is the only country with gas fields, in any case.

As for Bulgaria and Serbia going ahead with South Stream against the EU's wishes - just whom would they be selling the gas to? The plan was not merely to supply the two countries with gas, but to deliver it throughout Europe. With no market, there's not going to be any pipeline. (Bulgaria is already onboard for an interconnector from TAP - they'll be assured of gas even without South Stream.)