The decision to scrap Russia’s South Stream project and redirect the gas pipeline to Turkey seems to be a “rare diplomatic defeat” for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the New Your Times commented on Tuesday.

The USD 22 B project, once designed “to establish the country’s dominance in southeastern Europe”, has instead fallen victim to “Russia’s increasingly toxic relationship with the West.”

According to the NYT, the Russian President’s decision “also seemed to be a rare victory for the US and the EU, which have appeared “largely impotent this year as Mr. Putin annexed Crimea and stirred rebellion in eastern Ukraine.”

Moscow and the West have long been at loggerheads over the project designed to supply gas to southern and central Europe via a pipeline stretching from Russia across the Black Sea and the territory of EU member Bulgaria, bypassing Ukraine. Price disputes between Moscow and Kiev have disrupted Russian gas supplies to Europe in 2006 and 2009.

While Russia has presented the project as a purely business move, the NYT said, the EU and the US had rejected it as a “thinly veiled attempt by the Kremlin to cement its position as the dominant supplier in Europe”.

According to Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, the Russian President has personally decided to abandon the project after pressure from the EU against the pipeline mounted, resulting in Bulgaria’s decision to freeze construction works on its territory in June.

The NYT also noted that Putin, speaking during a visit to Turkey on Monday, also attacked Bulgaria, which, according to him had been “deprived of the opportunity to act as a sovereign state”, succumbing to pressure from the European Commission.