Russia has sought to undermine common EU energy rules and monopolize markets by promoting two politically driven gas projects: Nord Stream II and TurkStream. The EU push for gas diversification has fallen prey to the private interests of European energy companies, financial institutions, construction firms and industrial behemoths that have benefited from Gazprom-led projects.

In this policy brief, the Center for the Study of Democracy sheds light on how the TurkStream gas pipeline perpetuates the CEE dependence on Russian gas amid unnecessary infrastructure spending diverting scarce resources away from productive investments. The project blocks the diversification of gas markets, including by preventing cheaper LNG supply to compete with Russian gas in Europe. The brief calls for a more active role for the EU and the U.S. in developing a robust monitoring and enforcement mechanism to discontinue energy projects that might undermine the security of supply, energy source diversification and the integration of the EU energy markets in its different regions.