President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia would stop construction of the South Stream gas pipeline , shelving a strategically important project that Moscow was counting on to cement its influence in south-eastern Europe. Speaking after talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Turkish counterpart, in Ankara, Mr Putin said Russia would abandon the project to bring Russian gas to Bulgaria under the Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine, unless the EU dropped its opposition. The European Commission has refused to give Gazprom the exemption it would need to operate the pipeline at full capacity, viewing it as a potential further tool for the Kremlin to exert […]