Russia's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday sharply criticized an EU-sponsored plan to build a natural gas pipeline across the bottom of the Caspian Sea, connecting Central Asian fields with European markets, according to dpa. A recent European Union decision to formally investigate the project - which would allow Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to ship gas to market while bypassing Russia - ignored existing treaties and could undermine regional security, said a Russian Foreign Ministry statement. "This decision (by the EU) was made without consideration of the real geopolitical situation in the Caspian basin," the statement said, adding, "It is regrettable." Russia, along with Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, is part of a Caspian treaty group forbidding member states from participating in regional energy deals without the agreement of other signatories, according to the Kremlin statement. A trans-Caspian pipeline would also represent a significant threat to the environment, the statement said, adding that such a project would become more risky were the EU to lead it. "As far as we as aware, for the EU this is the first project of this type. We are surprised that the EU is suggesting to put its stakes down precisely in the Caspian Sea, at a location where no EU state has a shore," it said. The Kremlin statement came a day after EU member states for the first time granted the bloc's executive the power to negotiate such a deal. Last week, Russia inaugurated two submarine pipelines of its own, one linking the gas fields off its Sakhalin Island to the Pacific Ocean port of Vladivostok, and another under the Baltic Sea to increase Russian gas deliveries to Germany and eastern Europe. Europe, meanwhile, is keen to connect to central Asian producers with a pipeline across Turkey, so as to reduce its energy dependence on Russia.
