The Bulgarian government will cut off electricity exports if the flow of Russian gas to the country stops, Prime Minister Kirill Petkov said on Wednesday.
“If we enter a scenario in which the flow of Russian gas to Bulgaria is cut off by 100%, the interruption of electricity exports will be our measure, so that households have energy. “However, the good news is that the gas pipeline (via Bulgaria) supplies both Serbia and Hungary and they are still Russia’s strategic partners, so the chances of getting there are slim,” he said.
On Monday, the Bulgarian prime minister and three members of the ruling coalition condemned the actions of Russia, which recognized the independence of the territories controlled by separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Only the Bulgarian Socialist Party BSP has a different position, which does not condemn Russia, but only admits that Putin’s actions “may” violate international law.
“Bulgaria believes in the integrity of Ukraine. We believe that if any country, including Russia, enters with tanks, this is a violation of international law. “It is absurd to believe that these (Ukrainian) provinces are acting on their own,” Petkov said, adding that Bulgaria is a good partner in the EU and NATO.
At the same time, the Bulgarian Prime Minister expressed the hope that the gas connection with Greece will be ready by the summer and will allow Bulgaria to import liquefied gas. He even secured weekly communication on this issue with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The construction of the 182 km long pipeline started only in May 2019, although the project is more than a decade old. According to the contract, everything had to be ready by the end of 2021.
The purpose of the interconnection pipeline is to connect the Bulgarian gas transmission network with the Greek and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and to guarantee supplies from sources other than the Russian state-owned company Gazprom.
euractiv.gr
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