Gazprom's commitments strain the budget

The revival of a project to ship gas to Turkey puts more pressure on a company already struggling

An astonishing political rapprochement between Russia and Turkey nine months after Moscow imposed sanctions on Ankara may force Gazprom to cut some of its vast investment programme. TurkStream, a major gas pipeline that could open a new route for Russian gas in Europe, is now back on the table as relations between Moscow and Ankara thaw. Plans for the pipeline were shelved late last year after Turkish forces shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border. While an apology for the incident by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan boosted President Vladimir Putin's international standing-at least in Russian eyes-the revival of TurkStream puts more pressure on Gazprom's already-strained c