Kremlin 'Sees Little Prospect' for Resuming Bulgarian Energy Projects

Presidential election results in Bulgaria are unlikely renew talks on Belene nuclear power plant (NPP) and South Stream projects, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week.

However while the prospects to revive them "are minimal", Peskov stressed that Russia had always backed expanding cooperation with Bulgaria and would continue to do so.

"We hope that new projects will appear," Russia Today quotes him as saying.

His comments were a reference to the election of Rumen Radev as Bulgaria's new President on Sunday. Radev argues he will week to improve ties with Russia and call for EU sanctions on the country to be revoked.

Russia abandoned the South Stream pipeline in December 2014, citing EU opposition and Bulgaria's reluctance to unlocking construction permits for the pipeline's offshore sections. The project was designed to carry gas from Russia under the Black Sea to Central Europe via Bulgaria and Serbia.

Construction of the Belene NPP has been in the air since 2013, but Boyko Borisov's previous elected government ditched it, triggering international arbitration that in June forced Bulgaria into paying EUR 620 M in compensation to Rosatom subsidiary Atomstroyexport.

With Bulgaria set to receive reactors and equipment produced for the project, Borisov had pinned his hope on reviving the Belene project, but not necessarily with Russia.