Putin Eyes Renewing Energy Projects With Bulgaria

Following his meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Russia's readiness to renew energy partnerships with Bulgaria, despite lingering disappointent over the collapse of the South Stream gas pipeline project.

"We do not intend to feel offended by Bulgaria and other countries, which did not find the courage to resist the decisions of the European Commission," Putin said on Thursday in Hungary, referring to the South Stream pipeline project, which foundered after the EU declared it incompatible with EU anti-monopoly laws in 2014.

"We are ready to come back to that [joint gas projects], but we need guarantees. We cannot an do not want to register losses from careless decisions," Putin said.

Faced with European opposition, Russia pulled out of the South Stream project in 2014, which had been expected to deliver 63 billion cubic metres of Russian gas annually to Europe under the Black Sea.

Russia's abandonment of the project after the European Commission said it violated EU competition law was a blow to Bulgaria, which had hoped to capitalize on the transport of Russian gas to Europe.

Since the failure of South Stream, Bulgaria has been aiming to create a Balkan gas hub through building interconnections with its neighbouring countries  - Greece, Serbia and Romania.

Recently, however, ideas for fresh joint Bulgarian-Russian energy projects have undergone a revival.

In an interview for Bulgarian National Radio on January 28, a Russian energy expert, Konstantin Simonov, head of the Russian National Energy Security Fund, NESF, said Bulgaria could negotiate with Russia and the EU to build one of the pipes of the Russia-Turkey Turkish Stream project through its...