Bulgarian Secret Services Report on Balkan Stream: Suffocating Ukraine and No Free Gas for Bulgaria

President Rumen Radev, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the Presidents of the National Assembly knew in 2017 about a reports by the Bulgarian State Agency for National Security /SANS/on the Balkan Stream project. The report claims that Russia’s goal with this project is to isolate Ukraine from gas supplies by 2020 and no gas will come through this pipeline to Bulgaria.

Subsequently, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov did everything possible to make the project happen by the end of 2020, including through drastic violations of legislation and sending the army to build the problematic sections.

In the references of the State Agency for National Security Weekly information reg. N° KA-6-1507/10.10.2017 and Weekly information reg. N° KA-6-1931/11.12.2017, which are provided to the supreme government – President, Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Assembly, are about a “project for gas transmission through a Turkish Stream facility”.

The cost of the project and the route fully correspond to the pipeline implemented by Borisov, presented by his propaganda machine as “diversification” of gas supplies and renamed “Balkan Stream”.

The real goal, as evidenced by the reference of the services, is entirely in favor of Russia, through “a possible suspension of the transfer through Ukraine” if the project is completed on time.

“Internal Market Responsibilities Not Foreseen”

The second report from December 2017 proves that even then both Borisov and Radev knew that Bulgaria would not receive any gas through this pipe. It says that Gazprom has unilaterally changed the parameters for gas transmission through Bulgarian territory and the entire volume will be transited through Bulgaria to Serbia, Greece and Macedonia, with “no quantities for the domestic market foreseen”.

Neither the Head of State, nor the Prime Minister, nor the President of the National Assembly then Tsveta Karayancheva reacted to this diktat. On the contrary, all efforts of the Borisov cabinet were made to build the pipeline within the deadline required by the Kremlin – December 2020.

Although he is aware of the DANS’s finding that there will be no gas for Bulgaria, Borissov speaks publicly quite differently. On June 1, 2020, it claimed that the pipeline would bring gas “from various sources – from the United States, Russia, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia.”

“Full support” for the Russian pipe also comes from President Radev at the highest level.

“The President of Bulgaria Came to Putin for the Pipe”

Such are the headlines in the Russian press when Rumen Radev met with Putin in Sochi in May 2018 to discuss the revival of South Stream in its new form.

After the talks, Putin was quoted as saying that in a few days he would receive Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in Moscow and continue this discussion with him.

About what happened in Moscow became clear from a recently leaked recording of Boyko Borisov, probably with the head of his cabinet Rumyana Bachvarova. It hears the following:

“All right, come on… Where am I going… Yes… I don’t want to prepare him, but… that’s so… But after the meetings at different levels, they may push us for something, but I refused, but then I can be prepared. This is what we can tick six, seven, eight until the deep meetings take place by agreeing with Putin that there must be and there will be.

After deep meetings and understanding with Putin that there should be a pipe “there must be and there will be”, the parliament voted 2.8 billion levs. financing and construction started at a rapid pace. Prime Minister Borissov personally periodically inspected the construction site and vowed “to show Putin how it is built.”

Although the task was completed on time, Borisov modestly did not want to cut the ribbon of the “spectacular”, in his words, construction. The start of deliveries to Serbia via Balkan Stream on 29.12.2020 was first announced by Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.

The financing of the pipeline was entirely with the money of the Bulgarian taxpayers, and a huge administrative resource was thrown into the implementation on time, including its rapid legalization. This haste to please the Kremlin is accompanied by hundreds of violations of Bulgarian law, described in a detailed report of the Inspectorate of the Council of Ministers, commissioned by the Petkov government. Violations that the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office has refused to investigate, an investigation by the BRRD found.

A brand new construction equipment was also sent to the construction of the pipeline, purchased with European funds for completely different purposes, an investigation by DG BOETS and BRRD showed. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office is currently working on the case. The “sacred work” also included military-logistics units of the Bulgarian Army, which helped to transfer the pipe across the Vit River, as the BRRD revealed in one of its first publications.

At the same time, the real diversification of gas supplies through the interconnector with Greece, through which Azeri gas was to come, was delayed with administrative tricks and procedures by the same government of GERB, which was building South, Turkish, Balkan, but in fact a purely Russian stream.

We publish the two references with the clear knowledge that this is classified information marked “Confidential”, whose five-year limitation period expires in a few weeks. We do it because of the prevailing public interest and despite the risk of being pressured to reveal our sources, which cannot happen.

The sad summary is that despite the warning from the services, the highest-ranking Bulgarian politicians Boyko Borisov and Rumen Radev have not defended the Bulgarian national interest and have stooped ahead of the Kremlin’s conditions.

They were joined by Tsveta Karayancheva, who, as Speaker of Parliament, also read the references to the information about the disgraceful conditions for Bulgaria, but did not inform the highest authority – the Bulgarian National Assembly – before it voted BGN 2.8 billion for the construction of Balkan Stream.

History will also remember that Borisov and Radev served the plans of Putin’s bloody regime to attack Ukraine with full knowledge and awareness. And with our money!

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