Hungary and Russia sealed the agreement on the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline through the Central European country on February 28 in Moscow.

Hungary became thus the third country, after Bulgaria and Serbia, to officially join the ambitious 10-billion-euro project that will move Russian gas through South Eastern Europe into Italy.

The agreement was signed during the visit of Hungarian prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany to Moscow, but was agreed in principle earlier this week, during the visit of Russian deputy prime minister and heir-apparent to Russian president Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev to Budapest.

Gyurcsany earned much criticism at home for failing to bring the decision on joining the South Stream project into broad public discussion, but defended his position by saying that he was convinced that these agreements served the interests of Hungary, the European Union and Russia, as quoted by Reuters.

Many Hungarian experts and politicians share Western fears that Russia's role as the European energy champion might go beyond control with the construction of two new pipelines, South Stream and its counterpart, Nord Stream. At present, Russia meets a quarter of European gas needs.

The South Stream pipeline will carry 30 billion cu m of gas a year. The project was initially announced in June last year, when Russian energy giant Gazprom and its Italian peer ENI signed the initial agreement for the pipeline.