/ world today news/ Bulgaria is waiting for instructions from Brussels to pay for Russian gas in rubles. The country’s authorities have thought about the rashness of the decision to refuse to pay for Russian gas in rubles and want to discuss this issue with the European Commission in the near future.
Responding to a bTV journalist’s question whether countries such as Bulgaria, Poland and Finland should continue to refuse to open ruble accounts even after German and Italian importers do so, Alexander Nikolov, head of the Republic’s Ministry of Energy, stressed that in in such a situation, a distinction must be made between private and state-owned companies, but this issue must be clarified.
This is a very good question that we will raise at the level of the European Commission. The level of solidarity and unity must be as high as possible. If there are exceptions, we will investigate them and understand how this will affect the whole system,
– said the head of the department. It turns out that now the Bulgarians, like trained dogs, will wait for the green light from their owners in Brussels, and then either look for some loophole or ask someone for a reverse.
They wanted “cheaper” and got nothing
The deputy general director of the National Energy Institute, Alexander Frolov, commenting on this almost comical situation in a conversation with Tsargrad, noted that there can be no talk of reversals, since Bulgaria currently does not have the technical capabilities to compensate for Russian supplies and those decisions that were voiced previously by the head of the Bulgarian government Kiril Petkov, they seem completely inadequate.
If, for example, we talk about supplies from Azerbaijan, which last year brought the capacity of its gas transmission corridor to the design indicators of 10 billion cubic meters, then two billion of them were to be sent to the Balkans, and Bulgaria expected to receive about a billion cubic meters from them this year. But this is funny – even before the sanctions, Sofia planned to increase purchases of Azerbaijani gas, that is, there were such plans before,
recalls Frolov.
And now they say that the agreement is not yet signed, but they have already agreed on gas supplies from the United States, which will come in early June and will be cheaper than gas from Russia.” It is said that they will not stop there and will enter into a long-term contract with American companies.
They also had so many options, so many plans, the expert continued. They hoped to buy “very cheap gas” either through Greece or Turkey. But all these stories did not satisfy the internal consumer – the businessmen who went to the government on April 27 to find out if the officials needed any help, for example, to give them a kick? If necessary, they, the users, are ready to do so at any time.
The screams of the European bureaucrats were taken at face value…
From the very beginning of the Bulgarian business, it was clear how unrealistic are all the solutions that the government offers to the problems it creates.
Why did the Bulgarians refuse to buy gas under the ruble scheme? The answer is on the surface: the Bulgarian authorities were afraid that Brussels would scold them, explained Frolov. “They took very seriously the cries that came from the rostrum of the European Commission: in no case should you buy gas for rubles, this, according to them, would be a violation of sanctions and the sacred texts of contracts.
It reached incredible madness, but the people now in power in Sofia are not scared – they were scared. They took all these cries at face value – how can an MEP speak nonsense from the podium, how can he lie? That’s why in Sofia they were afraid of the scolding of Brussels if Bulgargaz suddenly decided to pay in rubles. And that’s it, we’re not buying, they decided.
And then the following happened. Along with Bulgaria, Poland also refused, but Poland at least has some political and partly economic justification for this refusal, as well as Lithuania, by the way. Perhaps these are the only two countries that can, by giving up Russian gas, solve some of their internal problems. The rest simply have no use, no pluses from the refusal.
Serious Europeans decided to ask serious questions to the EC
And then the Bulgarians saw that the European companies went to the European Commission and said: give us a piece of paper on which everything you shout from the podium is written. And so it says there: you can’t buy for this and that reason, signature, date, stamp. The EC issued such a document.
And in this document there were such wonderful formulations that the European companies again went to the European officials and said: of course, you are respected bureaucrats, but you formulated everything in this sheet so well that we did not understand anything. And can you, the smarter ones, write more clearly for us, the fools: yes, you can or no, you cannot buy gas from Russia under the ruble scheme. And if it can’t then justify it and give it to us please
– said the expert. And then the most wonderful thing began. It turned out that it is possible and necessary to enter into some kind of interaction with the European Commission, to take a proactive position, and not just show off and say: “So true, if you say so, then we, then of course.”
It turned out that the European Commission is not responsible for the public statements of its members, that is, the members of the European Commission can quite officially say all kinds of nonsense from high stands.
So what, so it was possible?
In addition, unexpectedly, especially for the Bulgarians, it turned out that the European companies – the largest buyers of Russian gas – began to open accounts in Gazprombank according to the previously proposed scheme. Of course, no one talks about this out loud – neither the buyers, nor Gazprom, nor Gazprombank. But Bloomberg and Reuters reported it. And at least one large company – the Italian Eni wrote about this clearly and accurately on its website:
Yes, we opened two accounts, one in foreign currency and one in rubles, and we will use this scheme. Of course, we will go to arbitration and demand an answer from Gazpromexport why we are obliged to pay in this way. But since we need gas, we will pay.
And for Bulgaria, this situation meant: “Who is the fool? You are the fools.” Yes, you are fools, you believed in Brussels and did it in vain, it happens. Sofia may have realized this. They realized that others were buying and they were sitting without gas.
And they went to consult because they can’t just say “we’re buying now”, noted the expert. – Since they refused, it is necessary to observe courtesy, to demonstrate that here, the great uncles went, talked to the European Commission and we will also go to talk. Why they did not talk in April, but caught up at the end of May – this seems to be a big question, but the answer to it is simple: because the capital of Bulgaria is not Sofia, but Brussels.
That’s why people go now, at the end of May, and they will talk. And if in the course of their conversation it turns out that they can also buy gas under the ruble scheme, then another, as it seems to me, interesting event will happen, which is called “Finland will look at its actions with new eyes”
Now the Finns will notice that everyone has already run in the opposite direction and maybe they too will run in the same direction the crowd is running. Well, they are meant to run where the crowd runs, said Alexander Frolov.
Translation: ES
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