The previous government of Bulgaria refused to buy Azerbaijani gas in full “for inexplicable reasons.” The country’s Prime Minister Kirill Petkov wrote about this in an article published in the influential German edition of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Russian Gazprom from April 27, a few months before the expiration of the contract, suspended gas supply to Bulgaria. Gazprom substantiated this with the refusal of the Bulgarian company Bulgargaz to pay for Russian gas in rubles. The contract between Gazprom and Bulgargaz expires on July 1, 2022. The Bulgarian authorities previously announced that the contract would not extend. It was stated that Bulgaria refuses Russian gas and will satisfy its needs in gas at the expense of Azerbaijan, Algeria and other alternative sources.
“One of Putin’s goals was to bring the pro -Russian government to power in Bulgaria to return the country to the sphere of influence of Russia,” said Bulgarian Prime Minister.
On the pages of the German edition, Petkov emphasizes that Russian aggression in Ukraine puts everyone, including Bulgaria, to make an existential choice: “Choosing between dependence and sovereignty, between long -term security and short -term stability, between liberal democracy and nationalism” .
According to Petkov, the head of Russian gas to Bulgaria, the head of the Russian Federation pursued three main goals. Firstly, destabilizing the European government – especially since it is a government, demonstrating zero tolerance for corruption, which, according to Petkov, is a “favorite means of Russia’s influence.”
Secondly, try to bring another, pro-Russian government with which it will be possible to return Sofia to the sphere of influence of Moscow. Here Petkov said that Bulgaria is a country where “there are traditional sympathies for Russia, but which has already made a conscious choice in favor of EU and NATO membership.”
And the third goal of the Kremlin is to sow the seeds of contention between the EU countries, showing that their composition contains second -class countries, such as Bulgaria with which Russia can afford to behave like that.
According to Petkov, the Bulgarian government realized that firmness should show and therefore immediately began to look for an alternative to Russian supplies. In this regard, the Prime Minister also mentioned an agreement with Azerbaijan, according to which Bulgaria could receive the volume of gas, “which the previous government refused for inexplicable reasons.”