Putin suggests turning Turkey into gas hub for Europe

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday doubled down on his proposal to turn Turkey into a gas hub for Europe after deliveries to Germany through the Baltic Sea's Nord Stream pipeline were halted.

Putin floated the idea of exporting more gas through the Turk Stream gas pipeline running beneath the Black Sea to Turkey as he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a regional summit in Kazakhstan.

It’s the second unlikely energy proposal that Putin has pitched in as many days, with European leaders calling Russia’s cuts in natural gas a political bid to divide them over their support for Ukraine. It’s created an energy crisis heading into winter that has fueled inflation, forced some industries to cut production and sent home utility bills soaring.

A day earlier, Germany rejected Putin’s proposal to step up gas flows to Europe via a link of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea – a pipeline that has never been operational – despite Moscow cutting off the parallel Nord Stream 1 over what it claimed were technical problems.

The Russian leader first voiced the proposal on Wednesday, saying that Russia could increase the volume of its gas exports to Turkey through the Black Sea pipeline, turning the country into a hub for gas supplies to Europe.

“We could ... make the main routes for the supply of our fuel, our natural gas to Europe through Turkey, creating in Turkey the largest gas hub for Europe -- if, of course, our partners are interested in it,” Putin told a Moscow energy forum.

On Thursday, he said the hub could help regulate “exorbitant" prices. “We could easily regulate (prices) at a normal market level, without any political overtones,” Putin said.

Erdogan did not comment publicly on the proposal but...