“The only way for Russian gas to enter will be through Bulgaria”: Iliyan Vassilev for “Turkish Stream”

On Tuesday afternoon, two hours after the failed meeting of the commission that should investigate the missing road map and “Turkish Stream”, “Continuing the change – Democratic Bulgaria” called an open meeting of its parliamentary group. The meeting was broadcast live on Facebook and was attended by a representative of Bg Elves, former Bulgarian ambassador to Russia (2000-2006) and analyst Iliyan Vassilev and investigative journalist Nikolay Staykov from the Anti-Corruption Fund. PP-DB MP Martin Dimitrov recalled that it was the GERB, DPS and BSP who sabotaged the commission and voted for the implementation of “Turkish Stream” a few years ago.

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Petko Petkov – one of the representatives of the investigative group, named “The Elves”, who discovered the road map after several services and state institutions failed, confirmed during the hearing that the documents found in the mail of Yevgeny Zobnin, assistant to the Russian politician Alexander Babakov, documents related to the Turkish Stream project are authentic. The investigators are to provide all the documents to the parliamentary committee and publish the full technical information about them so that everyone can be sure that these are the original documents.

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According to the leaked documents, after the announcement of the contract for the construction of the gas pipeline in 2029, a tripartite meeting was held in Istanbul between the Russian, Arab and Bulgarian countries. A “scheme” was discussed at this meeting. This scandalous fact – to gather guarantors and contractors in complete violation of the law on public procurement and contrary to the public interest, investigative journalist Nikolay Staykov told and added: “This is something for which criminal liability can be sought.”

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From the documents and the revealed correspondence it is also clear that the Saudi company started work even before the order was even announced. “If we have services on the ground – their task now is to start checking,” commented Stajkov.

“It is a matter of life and death for Putin to find an alternative route”

Analyst Iliyan Vassilev revealed key facts about Russian interest in the transit deal and its connection to the military actions of the Putin regime in Ukraine. He explained that until the beginning of this year, the Russians did not attack Ukraine’s gas infrastructure because it was tacitly agreed that it was possible to extend the gas transmission contracts between the two countries.

This year, however, attacks began on gas storage facilities in Ukraine, and 20 days ago the Russians also hit the largest production and drilling area in the country – Shebelinka, near Kharkiv. These circumstances make it clear that there will be no extension of the transit contract, which is why it is necessary to find an alternative route for these quantities of gas.

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According to the analyst, “it is a matter of life and death for Putin” to find a new way to transfer gas to Slovakia, Hungary and Austria, so as not to stop his money flow and, accordingly, reduce his influence. Vassilev commented that it is for this reason that the political situation in our country is extremely tense, because from now on the only way for Russian gas to enter Europe will be through Bulgaria.

According to him, in the next two months, Putin and Erdogan will have to agree on the future of transmission on “Turkish Stream”, since their current contract expires at the end of this year. Bulgaria has the strong cards, not Turkey.

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Venko Sabrutev from PP-DB closed the meeting with a request that similar risks for Bulgaria cannot be allowed in the future. “We have data on a flagrant violation of the Bulgarian legislation. Bulgarian citizens should understand more about perhaps the biggest corruption deal in our country, which directly affects gas prices for Bulgarian citizens, and also affects our national security.”