Talks between Russia and the European Union about the South Stream gas pipeline are on hold because of the Ukraine crisis, European Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said, according to a newspaper report on Sunday. “We will continue the talks when the Russian partners stick to international law again,” the energy commissioner told Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Talks about the pipeline, which is supposed to bring Russian natural gas to the EU once it has been constructed, are faltering because the Ukraine crisis eclipses everything, Mr. Oettinger said, according to the newspaper. He added that Russia would also have to be willing to cooperate on the basis of EU energy law as an additional precondition for continuing talks about the pipeline, according to FAS. Write to Friedrich Geiger at [email protected]