On Tuesday Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin launched the Nord Stream pipeline, which was designed to bring Russian natural gas to Germany through the bed of the Baltic Sea, avoiding shipments via Ukraine.

      With the click of a computer mouse, Putin opened the valve to let the gas into the first Nord Stream pipeline at the Portovaya compressor station at the Russian-Finnish border. After gas fills the pipeline, Russia will start gas shipments in Europe. The first shipment will be ready by the beginning of October.

      The $11 billion Nord Stream project, owned 51 percent by Russia's Gazprom gas export monopoly and 15.5 percent each by Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas and BASF-Wintershall, includes two roughly parallel pipelines with an overall annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters.

      The second pipeline, which will bypass Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other transit countries, is expected to be finished by 2012. That means that Ukraine will finally lose its exclusive status as a transit country for Russian gas to Europe.

        However, energy experts point out at fact that, even despite the opening of new transport routes, Ukraine will continue to play a pivotal role for the Russian gas exports in years to come.

        "Ukraine loses the temptation to beneit from its transit position, so, I hope, our relations will become more civilized", Putin told journalists. 

Source: Vesti.ru RIA Novosti