Ilin Dimitrov, the caretaker minister of Bulgaria, recently announced that Bulgaria would inflate the prices of Visa for Russian tourists from 35€ to 80€ following the European Union (EU) decision.
Dimitrov said,” In order to attract more Russian visitors, the visa fee was reduced from €80 to €35, but only for a limited time. This bargain is going away. The cost of their visa will increase, but it is unnecessary to ban Russians from arriving due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Despite not entirely supporting this EU decision, we must comply with it because we are members of this union”.
Despite the absence of direct flights after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, more than 60,000 Russian tourists have visited Bulgaria since the beginning of the year.
Dimitrov also added, ” There are so many Russians by the sea; about 100,000 Russian properties are located along our Black Sea coast. They entered in Bulgaria through Turkey and paid significant expenses to buy properties, and more are still coming.
Dimitrov also explained that Approximately 20,000 Ukrainian refugees who left their country due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war are currently staying in hotels in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian government will make sincere efforts to extend the government’s housing programme for the housing of Ukrainian refugees, which is expected to take place at the end of October.
He expressed that repaying hotels is their primary objective. Before all expenses were paid with EU financing, they were first paid using funds from the state budget.
Dimitrov assured that every penny would be checked before spending. Everything will be paid after guaranteeing that there is no fraud. After the programme is over, there will be a period of ten days in which anyone can file a complaint. If the mistake occurs, it will be fixed as soon as possible.