Noting the importance of the TurkStream pipeline’s supply of natural gas to his country, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in a statement that it is his hope that the pipeline, which carries Russian gas via the Black Sea, will not be attacked with an act of sabotage, as occurred to the Nord Stream pipeline.
He made the statement shortly after warnings were issued by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, that both Budapest, and Belgrade, will look upon any acts of sabotage against Russian gas supply routes to their region as a pretext for war.
Last September, the Nord Stream pipelines, which transported Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany, were rendered inoperative by underwater explosions which ruptured large segments of them. Nord Stream AG the operator of the pipes, called the damage unprecedented, and said it was impossible to estimate when the pipelines might return to being operational.
Although thus far no official investigation has produced any insight into who might have been responsible for the attacks, a piece by the journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that the damage was the result of a sabotage operation launched by Washington DC, with assistance from Norway. The United States government called the allegations “complete fiction,” and denied any involvement.
On Thursday, asked to comment on Orban’s statement, Vucic said to reporters, “Of course, Victor [Orban] spoke conditionally. But the point is that we hope that no one will think of attacking the pipeline and leave us in the winter without what we’ve built and paid for.”
He added, “Both Hungary and the Serbs have no prerequisites that it is possible …”
According to the Serbian President, if the TurkStream pipeline, or any other gas transmission system were to be damaged, the result would be a “cataclysm” for both Serbia and Hungary. Because both countries are heavily economically dependent on Russian oil and gas, they have opposed the imposition of sanctions which would have interrupted their access to energy products offered by Moscow, as they have refused to limit their own purchases of Russian energy to show of solidarity with those opposing Russia on the world stage.
At the same time, according to a report in the US state-run news outlet RFE-RL, if there were damage to the TurkStream gas pipeline, South Stream Transport, the operator of the pipeline, would not be able to repair the pipeline, since its license was revoked by the Dutch government.
Although based in the Netherlands, South Stream Transport, which operates the off-shore segment of the pipeline, is actually a subsidiary of Russian energy major Gazprom. Amid the raft of sanctions levied against the Kremlin by the Western powers, the company’s export license was revoked, and it was forced to reapply to the government of the Netherlands for a renewal of an export license.
