On August 6, 2009, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived in Ankara, Turkey's capital. Some twenty agreements and protocols were signed there, including those in the gas sector: on launching the construction of the Blue Stream-2 gas pipeline project and the beginning of exploration and construction of the South Stream project (Turkey is to issue an official permit for South Stream pipeline construction on November 1, 2010).
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi also arrived in Ankara to support Vladimir Putin in his stubborn fight against the Nabucco pipeline. However, according to Andrei Kolesnikov, Kommersant's special correspondent, yesterday's most intriguing news was a sudden change in Mr Putin's attitude towards Nabucco: he appeared reconciled to the inevitable and tried to derive a maximum benefit from it.
Everyone seemed nervous at the office of the Turkish Prime Minister's staff before the press conference. Historic documents are renounced rather than signed in such an atmosphere.
For one thing, the journalists took all the unoccupied seats in the room which created a bit of tension. The members of the Russian delegation, including Sergei Chemezov, head of Russian Technologies state corporation, Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom deputy CEO, Andrei Belyaninov, head of the Federal Customs Service and Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Rosatom, among others, came on time together with the journalists. But when all the seats in the room were filled, it turned out that the first row was to be occupied by members of the Turkish Cabinet though there were no nametags saying as much. However, they intended to meet the Turkish Prime Minister and Mr Putin, by test launching and even sign some documents.
What followed was a great row as bad as one might expect at an Ankara bazaar. The ministers quarrelled with the journalists, with each other, and with everyone about everything around them, including the national flags and even the empty doorway.
I was sure that the seats behind the microphones left for Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan, his Turkish counterpart, would also be taken leaving me to wonder about just one thing: how 20 agreements could have been reached with people who, in front of our very eyes, could not distribute seats in a hall. All they had to do was bring other chairs from another hall. Another rostrum with a microphone was there perhaps under the assumption that Silvio Berlusconi would take command of the situation if passions ran high.
Throughout the bickering, trilateral talks with Vladimir Putin, Recep Erdogan and Silvio Berlusconi continued in the adjacent room. Silvio Berlusconi was supposed to protect EU interests without neglecting the national interests of Russia or Italy.
Soon, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin and his Turkish colleagues appeared in the press conference room. It seemed that Igor Sechin had not stopped the talks even before the press conference, not for a moment. He laughed, patted someone's shoulder and became suddenly grave and nodded sympathetically. For a moment, I thought I wouldn't mind signing an agreement with Mr Sechin. But what would it be?
While signatures were added to these 20 agreements, Mssrs Putin, Erdogan and Berlusconi were sitting at the press conference room in the chairs vacated for them with some difficulty. The ceremony lasted for an hour at least. I was surprised that the pile of red folders with protocols of intent and agreements were not thinning out as the documents were signed. Later I realised that the signed documents were being placed under the unsigned documents. I would not have been surprised if they had started signing them a second time - so much pleasure they seemed to derive from the process. After Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan had signed their portion of the documents (on cooperation in the gas sector, that is, the construction of the Blue Stream-2 and South Stream pipelines), the press conference began. Mr Erdogan said that they had worked on key documents relating to the gas agreements late into the night (according to a Kommersant source, till early next morning), and he expressed special thanks to Mr Sechin.
According to the Turkish Prime Minister, the protocol on the two countries' gas cooperation allows [Turkey] to continue importing Russian gas (the previous agreement which expires in 2011 has been extended).
The Turkish Prime Minister also said that the Blue Stream-2 gas pipeline with an annual capacity of 16 billion cubic metres will be built to transport gas to Syria, then Lebanon, Cyprus and Israel, and Turkey will thus become a major transit hub.
It seemed the Turkish Prime Minister was pleased with every word he said. He didn't reject any of the projects: neither Nabucco, nor South Stream or any of the Blue Streams. In addition, he persuaded Russia to participate in the construction of the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline - something Russia did not seem to be interested in. Perhaps, this was our price for all the other agreements.
Mr Putin said, almost triumphantly, that South Stream is in demand today "since it is very important for the energy security of the whole of Europe" (as usual, Mr Putin thought of that above all, for who else would take care of such a delicate matter?).
He paid tribute to Mr Berlusconi and representatives of Italian big business; to be more exact, he explained their presence there: Italy will participate in implementing the South Stream, Blue Stream and Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline projects. He said nothing, however, about Silvio Berlusconi's role in arranging everything in such a way that the agreements reached on that day suited everyone: that was obvious.
Apart from this, Mr Putin explained why Russia had won the tender for the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Turkey.
"Even today, our [project] offers are half the cost of those of the United States," he said.
Mr Putin admitted that the talks were complicated.
"Our Turkish friends are strong negotiators. They gave the floor to the Russian journalists and then switched off the translation," he said and shrugged his shoulders. Silvio Berlusconi was the only person to laugh at the joke when it was translated for him.
"It is true, South Stream and Nabucco are competing projects," Vladimir Putin continued. "The competition between them is stronger than that between the Samsun-Ceyhan and Burgas-Alexandroupolis projects (some experts claim that if the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline is built, there will be no need whatsoever for the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline - A.K.).
"There is even less competition between the Samsun-Ceyhan and Burgas-Alexandroupolis projects. On the whole, the output may be divided between the two pipelines," Mr Putin added.
To this point, Vladimir Putin had denied the right of the two gas and two oil pipeline projects to exist at one time. When asked about this, he shrugged his shoulders and asked what we thought the Nabucco pipeline could be filled with. This was a rhetorical question, to be sure.
I think a sharp change in Vladimir Putin's position on Nabucco was the most intriguing part of the whole day.
By Andrei Kolesnikov
