Should Bulgaria terminate its participation into the large-scale Russian energy projects?
Russia has turned the production, transportation, and sale of energy resources into a specific type of strategy for exerting geopolitical pressure. There are enough examples for that. The termination of the gas supplies for Europe through the Ukraine last winter was very indicative. Bulgaria is 90% dependent on Russian energy resources. We should also add the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, which was constructed as a Russian project and operates fully with Russian nuclear fuel. Bulgaria has no alternative sources of oil and gas, and our deposits are negligible. Therefore, the priority of Bulgaria’s energy policy should be the finding of energy sources that can reduce as much as possible the country’s dependence on the Russian state monopolist Gazprom, governed by the Kremlin. In this context, we need to point out that the support for the Nabucco pipeline project, for example, does not mean that Bulgaria is giving up the Russian energy projects, it means seeking an alternative in order to
