MOSCOW, April 5 (RIA Novosti) – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called for environmental protection along the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea in an article published on Friday ahead of the Council of the Baltic Sea States summit in St. Petersburg.

“Some 100 million euros ($129 million) has been spent on preliminary environmental research – the largest ever in the Baltic,” Medvedev said in his piece published by the Kremlin’s official web site in Russian. “About another 40 million euros ($51 million) will be spent in the next three years on setting up monitoring along the entire pipeline,” the prime minister wrote in the article titled “The Baltics in the 21st Century: Priority – Environment.”

He said that both governments and private businesses should join forces for the environmental cause.

According to the Kremlin, the piece appeared Friday in seven major newspapers of the Baltic countries.

Medvedev was due to travel to St. Petersburg on Friday to attend the Baltic environmental conference.

Nord Stream operates two gas pipelines from Russia to Germany with a total annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters. Russia's Gazprom owns 51 percent of Nord Stream, while German, French and Dutch shareholders have the rest.