Bulgaria has abolished the transit tax on Russian gas after threats from Hungary. We are talking about paying 20 lions (about 11 dollars) per megawatt-hour for Russian gas coming from the Turkish Stream gas pipeline heading to Hungary and Serbia.
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Last week, Budapest threatened Sofia with a veto on Bulgaria’s entry into the Schengen zone if the country did not cancel the transit fee for Russian gas, BNT News reports.
Pro-Russian Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó has publicly stated that Budapest will lift the veto as soon as the Bulgarians remove the transit fee.
Thus, Hungary decided to blackmail Bulgaria – they directly stated that they would veto the country’s entry into the Schengen zone if it did not cancel the fee for the transit of Russian gas.
Russia, after a full-scale invasion, continued to pump gas to Serbia and Hungary – and the gas pipeline itself runs through Bulgaria. In the fall of 2023, the latter introduced a tax on this transit.
Sofia decided to introduce a tax on the supply of Russian gas to Europe via a gas pipeline that runs through Bulgaria in October, but the day before the local parliament hinted that the regulation would probably be suspended due to blackmail from Budapest.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Szijjártó has visited Moscow four times to negotiate a further reduction in the price of Russian gas for Hungary.
In addition, the Bulgarian parliament adopted in the first and second readings a ban on the export of fuel produced from Russian oil, which was an exception to the EU ban, and also, to facilitate entry into the Schengen zone, canceled the tax on the transit of gas from the Russian Gazprom through its territory.
Lawmakers introduced a ban on the export of fuel produced from Russian oil from January 1, and from March 1, the LUKoil plant suspended the processing of Russian oil.
Thus, Sofia prematurely terminates the exception to the EU ban on the import of Russian oil by sea, which is subject to sanctions and brought Russia 2 billion euros.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.