Bulgaria 'Signed Fighter Jets Repair Deal' with Russia's MiG

Bulgaria has signed with Russian aircraft company MiG a deal to have its fighter jets refurbished, the company's Director General has said.

"Bulgaria has not given up on repairing our aircraft. We signed at the end of last year a number of agreements, contracts with the Bulgarian Air Force. This is why we are cooperating with them," TASS news agency quotes Ilya Tarasenko as saying at Aero India - 2017, an aerospace expo in Bangalore, India.

Tarasenko has not elaborated.

Bulgaria ratified at the end of 2015 an intergovernmental agreement with Poland to have Russian-made MiG-29 aircraft repaired.

A year later, however, former Defense Minisrter Nikolay Nenchev was indicted for failing to abide by and effectively obstructing an agreement with RSK MiG that provided for the aircraft's maintenance and the repair of several jet engines signed in April 2015.

Nenchev allegedly told his deputy Desislava Yosifova to refrain from any implementation of the contracts worth BGN 7.386 M.

The prosecution targeted Nenchev not because of the deal with Poland or any harm done on RSK MiG, but because he allegedly threatened the lives of Bulgarian pilots by blocking the repair that would have boosted flight safety and airworthiness of the fighter jets.

Also last year, Bulgaria signed a deal to acquire 10 MiG-29 engines from Russia. `