–
–
Milen Velchev Staff: BTV
–
Bulgaria has no rubles and no desire to pay for gas with them. Payments will continue to be in euros through one or another Russian bank, which will exchange them on the Russian market, former Finance Minister Milen Velchev told BTV. According to him, Russia guarantees that its income in euros will not be frozen.
According to him, Russia cannot be deprived of gas revenues and we see that it is not doing so. If he could, he would propose a countermeasure to sanctions.
The alternative to Russian gas for our country is Azerbaijani gas, in the long run – liquefied gas. However, Milen Velchev explained that Bulgaria is not too dependent on gas as a raw material. It is not possible without it, but electricity and coal can completely replace gas in the medium term, if necessary.
Nobody in the economy benefits from the war, Velchev believes. One can talk about who loses more and who loses less. Russia, as an isolated participant in world trade, is currently losing a lot, but so is the West. Russia is too big an economy to expect to be in a crisis like Cuba or Venezuela, which are very dependent on imports of many goods. While Russia can produce everything, but the standard of living of the Russians has already fallen and will continue to fall.
At the same time, inflation in our country depends a lot on how long the war will last. If it intensifies, inflation may remain at these levels for many months to come, but with the end of the war, the price of energy and food will begin to fall.
The memorandum with the Jamcorp investment fund does not impose any commitments on the part of the government, Velchev said. According to him, this is a declaration of intent. If the origin of the money is pure, one can only welcome the entry of any private capital in Bulgaria.
Velchev explained that with Atanas Bostandjiev – manager of “Jemcorp”, they worked together as employees of VTB, “as we are no longer, he has long been.” Now Velchev himself has no inside information about the company’s activities, described by him as a boutique fund. According to him, “Jamcorp” used to want to rehabilitate KTB, but this did not happen.
–
