According to Reuters, Bulgaria has agreed a 40% cut in the price of gas it imports under the long-term contract with Russia, its main gas supplier, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said last week.
Besides, Ukraine’s “Information Resistance” informed that there was a secret phone conversation between the Bulgarian president Rumen Radev and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The conversation possibly led to the agreement to prolong the existing contract between Gazprom and Bulgartransgaz. But it is quite different from the official media announcements.
In accordance with these unofficial agreements, Russia will continue its monopoly in the Bulgarian gas market. The scheme provides for a formal review of the pricing structure of Russian gas supplies, which would outwardly meet the relevant decisions of the European Commission. Actually, it is planned to reduce the cost of Russian gas supplies to Bulgaria by 40% and Bulgarian leadership presented it as an achievement and benefit for Bulgarian citizens, and as the main argument to continue cooperation with Gazprom. But, in fact, tariff reductions for Bulgarian consumers will be only 1.5%, and the multimillion-dollar difference will be divided between some Russian and close to the Kremlin Bulgarian oligarchs, participating in this criminal scheme.
Actively promoting the idea of extending the gas contract, Putin intends to keep Bulgaria in his orbit, as the “16th republic”, as was generally accepted in the USSR.
It is not a secret that Mr. Radev has been on the hook of the Russian security services for a long time and he also has close ties with Leonid Reshetnikov a former lieutenant-general of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, who is banned from entering Bulgaria for 10 years for espionage. Rumen Radev has always supported aggressive Kremlin policy towards Ukraine and Syria and pushes back against any anti-Russian sanctions on the international arena. Many experts say, not without reason, that Mr. Radev has long been a member of the network of so-called “agents of influence” of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation.
Thus, it is likely that the Kremlin gas expansion of Bulgaria and the EU will continue, despite the fact that this does not at all meet the interests of the Bulgarian people, and Europe in general.
