Recently Turkey shot down a Russian warplane over Syria, and since then Russia is looking to punish Turkey. One of the first things it's doing is imposing trade sanctions on Turkey, and now it has resorted to suspending a pipeline project that would go through the Black Sea. This leaves gas pipes stranded on the shore with a value of almost $2 billion. The pipeline would come from Russia through Turkey, bypassing Ukraine, to bring gas to Europe. The pipes can only be used in the Black Sea so for now, the Russian Energy company Gazprom is forced to put the pipes in storage.
This will severely hurt Gazprom, who previously has spent millions of dollars ($10-14) Turkish Stream. Russian does not plan on moving forward with project until tensions have subsided, which they're not sure will happen in two years or in fifty years. Russia is one of the biggest steel pipe producers in the world.
http://www.businessinsider.com/spat-with-turkey-leaves-russia-stuck-with-abandoned-gas-pipes-worth-billions-2015-12
5 comments:
This has a big economic impact on Russia and Turkey. Obviously, the impact is negative because it is much more costly to ship oil between the countries. It is also a costly variable because they do not know when they will continue with the production of the pipeline. When the relation become better between the two countries, it will help both of their economies.
And here arises the negative effects of messing with Russia. Sometimes, economic restrictions can be more effective than violent retaliation. Russia could have easily bombed Turkey or shot down one of their jets, but instead it has chosen to punish Europe and Turkey differently. This is both smart and effective. By doing this they will severely damage the Turkish economy. The only problem is that this will also have repercussions for Russia, because they won;t be selling oil through that pipeline.
Hopefully the two nations can resolve the political situation. An agreement or better understanding that relieves the tensions would certainly help economically. This is just one example of many showing the loss of mutual benefit due to a political dispute or misunderstanding.
I do not foresee tensions between these two countries to reside anytime soon. The warplane was downed by Turkey in an area between the Syrian and Turkish boarder. With such high tensions in the middle east you can't fully blame the Turks for taking down the warplane. I do not believe these actions are "an act of war," stated by Putin soon after the incident. Instead, I believe the Turkish military saw the warplane as a threat, especially with an increase in terrorist threat levels throughout the globe. I hope these two countries can get past their differences to allow an oil pipeline that would benefit the entire east hemisphere.
I think Russia punishing Turkey economically is not only because Turkey shot down a Russian warplane. The main reason would be Turkey gave IS oil support. Turkey helped IS, and Russian want to destroy IS. There is no reason Russia will let Turkey go easily.
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