Where is bulgaria in relation to russia

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Date DW News on Facebook Follow dwnews on Twitter Within only this month two high level visits marked the current development of the relations between Bulgaria and Russia. A few weeks ago between June 6 th and 8 th , Bulgarian president Rumen Radev also visited the Russian Federation to take part in the St.

To this should be added the fact that just an year ago, in May , Bulgarian President and Prime Minister as well had working visits to Russia.

What all this activity in the bilateral relations between Bulgaria and Russia shows and what is the light motive in all this meetings and talks.

During the most recent visit of the Speaker of the National Assembly Tsveta Karayancheva, Bulgaria highlighted that Russia is an important partner of Bulgaria in the energy sphere, which holds a leading position in bilateral relations. Karayancheva pointed out that there is great potential for deepening bilateral energy relations between Russia and Bulgaria as long-standing partners.

For the first time, the Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament speaks to the representatives in the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament. Tsveta Karaiancheva specified that energy cooperation should be continued in line with the principles — expedience, competitiveness, transparency, security of supply and market-based price.

She noted also that Bulgaria is pursuing a policy aimed at ensuring energy security for the country as well as for the European Union. The Bulgarian position is that it does not object to any project that is in line with current European legislation, contributes to the security of supply and the goals of the Energy Union and is economically justified.

Another accent that Bulgarian delegation did in its statements was that the cooperation between Bulgaria and Russia in nuclear energy deserves a careful, responsible and in-depth discussion as well. Another point of Bulgaria was that as a full member of the European Union and NATO it could help to develop the dialogue of these two organizations with the Russian Federation. He added that there is a longstanding partnership in natural gas supply and transit between the two countries so Bulgaria will continue to modernize and expand its gas transmission network and has plans to build a gas distribution center, a gas exchange, while the construction of gas interconnectors with our neighbors has already started.

President Vladimir Putin also confirmed that the relations between Russia and Bulgaria are gradually being restored, adding that the reserves for activating them have started to be utilized and on its turn agreed that Bulgaria can deepen its strategic partnership with Russia in the field of energy, but to this end, concrete conditions have to be met, among which the projects are profitable for both countries. Bulgaria depends on Russia for all of its nuclear fuel though it recently signed a deal to have a new reactor built by Japanese-owned Westinghouse.

Bulgaria ordered work on the pipeline to stop in the summer under pressure from Brussels that it did not conform to EU law.

It appears not to have resumed since. Disagreements over the suspension were among various issues that helped bring down the Bulgarian coalition government in July. This led to an election earlier in October, where the pipeline was a key point of debate. The pro-suspension centre-right GERB party finished first, but it is not yet clear whether it can form a stable coalition. Aside from energy, Russia is heavily interested in the Bulgarian military-industrial complex, most of whose equipment is Soviet-made and depends on Russia for maintenance.

The outgoing Bulgarian defence minister was recently quoted saying this puts the country in a vulnerable position, particularly regarding its ageing jet fighters. Any question of upgrading with equipment from elsewhere runs counter to Russian interests, so is unlikely to be welcomed by Moscow.

Russia is also good at using propaganda. This is attractive to those Bulgarians whose affection for Russia remains strong. And it suits Russia when the Bulgarians are unsure whether to look East or West, such as during the Ukraine crisis.

The Russians see this as an opportunity to tip the scales by playing one side against the other. This cropped up over South Stream, for instance, where there are rumours that the previous government would have allowed the pipeline work to continue despite the EU objections. Some observers believe that Russia will also have a hand in determining the make-up of the next coalition government.