On May 21 and 22 Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev paid official visit to the Russian Federation. According to the preliminary announcements, this visit puts an end to a ten-year interruption in the high-level bilateral dialogue. The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin described the meeting with Bulgaria’s head of state Rumen Radev as a “good signal for the resumption of comprehensive relations between Russia and Bulgaria”. President Radev also voiced optimism, but meanwhile commented that it was difficult to talk about confidence in the bilateral relations after the suspension of three large energy projects and in times of sanctions and restrictive regimes, as well as after improvident political talking in the recent years.

In July 2016 in a Radio Bulgaria comment named “What kind of normalization is likely in Sofia-Moscow relations?” we assumed skeptically that at that moment we could not expect any particular normalization of the relations with Russia and that it was rather a wishful thinking. However, has the moment for such normalization of bilateral relations come already?

Bulgaria’s President Radev talked with Russia’s Premier Dmitri Medvedev and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin about the 16^th session of the Bulgaria-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation which has been delayed for years. The commission will probably sit in October this year. Its agenda is yet to be specified, but is very likely to include President Radev’s wishes for direct supplies of Russian gas to Bulgaria and resumption of the Belene NPP project.

It also became clear during the meeting between Presidents Putin and Radev that Bulgaria’s Premier Boyko Borissov will soon depart to the Russian Federation to meet Vladimir Putin. Premier Borissov and President Putin will discuss the resumption of the confidence between Sofia and Moscow and the comprehensive cooperation between the two countries after the suspension of Belene nuclear power plant project, South Stream gas pipeline project and Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project. According to the Bulgarian Council of Ministers, Premier Borissov’s visit to Moscow will be held by the end of May year.

Recently, Premier Borissov held a phone conversation with Russia’s President Putin and discussed with him the Scripal case. Then, Borissov turned down an invitation to visit the Russian Federation. Borissov did not visit Russia during the election campaign of President Putin. Premier Borissov probably decided to visit Moscow after the EU-Western Balkans Summit on May 17, which was organized by Bulgaria as rotational President of the Council of the EU. We do not know the exact date of Premier Borissov’s future visit to Russia, but President Putin mentioned during his meeting with Bulgaria’s head of state Radev that Boyko Borissov will visit Moscow within few days. According to diplomatic sources, this may happen between May 30 and June 1. The moment of the forthcoming visit looks good and Sofia and Moscow may overcome at least some of the obstacles towards the normalization of their bilateral relations. The Bulgarian National Assembly is expected to vote the proposal of the country’s government to lift the moratorium on the construction of the Belene NPP, which would allow this project to resume. Bulgaria’s Minister of Energy Temenuzhka Petkova offered options for utilization of the equipment manufactured for Belene NPP, including resumption of the project and a tender to determine a strategic investor for this project. On Tuesday the Director General of the Russian Rosatom Alexey Likhachev said that his company was ready to participate in such tender. President Radev’s idea for direct supplies of Russian gas to Bulgaria seems close to the idea of Borissov’s cabinet for construction of Balkan gas hub on Bulgarian territory. Last year the European Commission approved the financing for feasibility study for such a project.

Until now Russia has been always evading the topic about the restart of the South Stream gas pipeline project through Bulgaria due to the lack of guarantees from the European Commission. After the meeting between Presidents Radev and Putin, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak commented that his country was ready to launch a project for the construction of a gas pipeline project to Bulgaria, if it receives permission from the European Commission and the government in Sofia. It is important for Russia that there are guarantees from the perspective of gas buyers, compliance with European legislation and guarantees from the European Commission and the Bulgarian government, Minister Novak said.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov