RUSSIA GAS PIPELINERussian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ( C ) and , sitting next to him , former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder , now Chairman of the Nord Stream shareholders ' committee , speak with staff members of the Portovaya compressor station ' s dispatch center outside Vyborg , a city 130 km northwest of St . Petersburg , Russia , 06 September 2011 , upon the Nord Stream gas pipeline launch . Gazprom started pumping gas into the first line of the Nord Stream gas pipeline which links Russian and German coasts via the Baltic sea bed . Nord Stream consists of two 1 , 224 km natural gas pipelines . When fully operational in the last quarter of 2012 , the twin pipeline system will supply 55 billion cubic metres ( bcm ) of Russian gas a year to the EU . EPA / ALEXEY NIKOLSKY MANDATORY CREDIT / RIA NOVOSTI / *** NO SALES NO ARCHIVES NOT FOR USE AFTER 06 OCTOBER 2011 ***< 연합뉴스 모바일 앱 다운 받 기 > < 포토 매거진 >< 저작권자 ( c ) 연합뉴스 . 무단 전재 - 재배 포금 지 . >