Russia has suspended the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project after the downing of a Russian jet in Syria, as Russian Energy Minister Aleksander Novak announced.

This pipeline construction is one of the major projects for Russia and Turkey which aims to deliver Russian natural gas to Turkey via the Black Sea, and then further to Southern Europe.

“The negotiations on Turkish Stream have been suspended,” said Novak, as Reuters reports, stressing that the pipeline construction was discussed in the framework of the Russian-Turkish Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, which has been also suspended.

“We’re expecting the head of state, in all likelihood, could declare the freezing of Turkish Stream, or at least some kind of timeout could be announced,” an anonymous Gazprom source told Reuters on Wednesday.

“We are still hoping that Turkish Stream will be pushed back by a few years, rather than completely canceled,” a second source said.