Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched the work of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.
The pipeline will deliver gas to Turkey, as well as to the countries of Southern, Southeast and Central Europe.
In addition, the launch of the Turkish Stream means the completion of the next stage in the diversification of Russian blue fuel exports.

Since the beginning of January, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Greece began to receive gas through the Turkish Stream.
In addition to these countries, Russian gas should reach Serbia this year, and Hungary in 2021.
The Serbian section of the gas pipeline is also ready for operation.
It is expected that the first supplies of Russian gas to Serbia will begin in May this year and will amount to about 3 billion cubic meters per year.

The total capacity of the two pipeline strings is 31.5 billion cubic meters, of which exactly half is intended for Turkey, and the other half for the countries of south-eastern and central Europe: Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia. Since 2002, gas has also been supplied to Turkey through the Blue Stream pipeline with a capacity of 16 billion cubic meters.