Bulgaria rejects Putin accusations on South Stream
(SOFIA) - Bulgaria's president played down on Tuesday any responsibility for the shelving by Russia of the multi-billion-dollar South Stream gas pipeline project to deliver Russian gas to Europe.
"It is clear to everyone that South Stream is not a project only between Russia and Bulgaria but between Russia and the EU... The decision is entirely in the hands of Russia and the European Union," Rosen Plevneliev told journalists.
Russian President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly announced on Monday that Moscow was drawing the curtain on what for half-a-decade has been one of Kremlin's flagship projects, pointing a finger at Bulgaria for blocking work on its territory.
EU member Bulgaria, once a strong backer of South Stream, froze all work on its section of the pipeline in June under heavy pressure from the European Union and the United States.
Brussels had said that the way Bulgaria had awarded contracts fell foul of EU competition laws.
"South Stream is one of the projects that can happen in the European Union only and solely if they comply with European legislation," Plevneliev said on Tuesday.
"So far Russia has not given any indication that it wants to meet the European legislation," he added.
The Bulgarian government said meanwhile that it has not received official confirmation from Moscow that the entire project has been scrapped, and would not comment before then.
"For me the project is not closed until we see Russia's official stance," Economy Minister Bozhidar Lukarski told journalists.
The deputy head of the Bulgarian parliamentary energy commission, Martin Dimitrov, suggested meanwhile that Putin may be bluffing.
"This is a tactical move on the part of Putin and Russia to build pressure on the EU and Bulgaria. They have not at all given up South Stream," he said.
The pipeline was intended to bring 63 billion cubic metres of Russian gas underneath the Black Sea and through the Balkans, crossing Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia and then Austria to connect with the main European pipeline network -- and bypassing crisis-hit Ukraine.