Serbian President calls Bulgaria to continue supply of Russian gas

Sofia, Bulgaria: The President of Serbia – Alexander Vucic, called on the Bulgarian government to “continue” the supply of Russian gas to his country. This message of the Serbian President comes after the Bulgarian government announced it would not be importing Russian gas.  

Serbian President stated, “Bulgaria has announced that it will cease importing Russian gas. I’m not sure that this is so easy to execute. We are simply saying that we want Russian gas from Balkan Stream. You deliver the gas to our gas pipeline, for which we pay, and what you want to do next is your concern; this is not our problem for us”.  

Serbia has the right to receive the Russian gas, as it pays transit fees for gas from Russia via the Turkish Stream through Bulgaria, as per the statement of the Serbian President.   

On the other hand, the Director of the Serbian Gas Company – Dusan Bayatovic, asserted, “The statements issued by the Bulgarian officials that they will not extend the contract for the purchase of gas from Russia are “empty dreams” as they have nowhere to fill the pipeline except Russia”. 

Following the above statement, he added, “Bulgaria cannot cease buying Russian gas just because it will run out of gas. In my personal view, I think this is a political statement amid the pressure on Bulgaria, but it is also pressure against Serbia and Hungary”. 

Meanwhile, on Sunday, March 20, Bulgarian Minister of Finance Asen Vassilev, in conversation with media, stated, “In the present situation, there will be no negotiations with Russia’s Gazprom. There are other alternatives also, such as – the old pipes of the Trans-Balkan flow. We have a capacity of about 20 billion cubic meters and can be used in both directions; we need 3 billion cubic meters.” 

Bulgaria’s Minister added supply is being received from Qatar Algeria also, which is a pan-European strategy, adding that, “In the next 1-2 weeks, it will be discussed at the European level to make a common gas contract for the whole EU. We expect this mechanism to work in the summer”.