RIYADH: President Putin is enjoying his last hurrah on the global energy chessboard. While the world seemed to be waiting, rather nervously and impatiently, for Opec to make its next move, Russia seems to be slowly but surely consolidating its grip on gas supply routes to energy-starved Europe, outmanoeuvring in the process the EU bid(s) to lessen the control of Moscow on supply routes.Visiting Bulgaria last week, the former spy master made sure that the long-delayed energy agreements with Bulgaria are inked. . Despite scepticism in many quarters, Bulgaria and Russia finally agreed on the 10 billion Euros ($14.7bn) South Stream pipeline to carry Russian gas to Europe, giving Moscow an even greater say on European energy supplies. This has remained the prime objective - almost an obsession with the current Russian strongman.

The South Stream pipeline, to be built by Russia's Gazprom and ENI of Italy, will first cross the Black Sea into Bulgaria and then split into two arms, one going northwest to Austria and the other south to Greece and then west to southern Italy. The pipeline will have the capacity to pump 30 billion cubic meters (one trillion cubic feet) per annum.

Premier Stanishev of Bulgaria said that both sides had agreed to a stake of 50 per cent each in the company that will operate the stretch of the South Stream pipeline running through Bulgarian territory.

Bulgaria, which receives almost all of its oil and gas from Russia, had earlier pledged support for this rival European Union flagship Nabucco pipeline too. This pipeline aimed to diversify Europe’s energy sources by bypassing Russia and feeding gas from the Caspian basin.

Sofia’s talks with the EU on the Nabucco have however, been reported to be stalled recently and with the signing of the South Stream agreement, Russia seems to have definitely made a crucial headway in the Russian direction.

Although even after signing the deal with Moscow, Bulgaria is insisting that given its strategic position, it has all the intentions to participate in the EU sponsored project too, as it stands to pocket hefty transit fees for the transportation of gas through its territory.

The Russian giant Gazprom has also announced a deal with Serbia on the takeover of its state-controlled oil monopoly NIS. Russia added Serbia's oil monopoly to its recent string of energy acquisitions in a deal that will also allow Moscow to send more gas to Europe through its South Stream pipeline.

Four days after signing a major pipeline deal with Bulgaria, the agreement to take a 51 percent stake in NIS was yet another blow to the European Union's ambitions to build its own 5,300-mile pipeline to bring gas to Europe from Iran and Azerbaijan via Turkey. The EU’s Nabucco pipeline project was conceived to allow Europe to reduce its dependence on Russia, which already supplies a quarter of the bloc’s natural gas.

Serbian media had reported earlier the week Belgrade was hesitating to give Gazprom full control of NIS and felt the offer made was not attractive enough. Gazprom had offered 400 million euros for 51 per cent of NIS. It has also promised to invest 500 million euros in the company and ensure passage via Serbia of the South Stream pipeline.

During the Putin trip to Bulgaria, Russian company Atomstroyexport reportedly also inked a four-billion-euro (5.9-billion-dollar) contract to build a new nuclear plant at Belene on the Danube. And then after 14 years of talks, the two countries also finally decided to set up a joint company for building the Burgas-Alexandrupolis pipeline to channel Russian oil from the Black Sea to the Aegean, a vital alternative route bypassing the tanker-congested Bosphorus Straits.

While the Bulgarian government was trying to portray these accords as exceptional, government critics in Sofia have accused the government of becoming a pawn in Moscow's game for greater power. Hundreds of Bulgarians protested while the Russian President was there.

While the world is keeping fingers crossed on the future global energy scenario, President Putin seems striving to be remembered as the using Russian energy riches to re-establish and rehabilitate Moscow in the global power equation. Hats off to Putin - the former KGB spymaster! How deftly he has used his energy riches to rekindle hopes of the revival of the old Soviet era glory. And his last stroke in Sofia was a master one too - one has to concede!