BRUSSELS, May 30 (UPI) -- Moscow's natural gas monopoly has rejected EU demands that it open its pipeline network to independent producers and other countries.
Alexander Medvedev, OAO Gazprom's deputy chief executive, also mocked plans to bypass Russia with a natural gas pipeline from Kazakhstan to Europe as "unrealistic," the Financial Times reported Tuesday.
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The European Union strongly backs the planned trans-Caspian pipeline because it gives the continent a Central Asian alternative to Russian natural gas, which has been turned off in the recent passed over pricing disputes.
Medvedev said Kazakhstan does not have enough gas to justify the planned pipeline, nor Europe enough demand.