“The gas crisis is a dimension of the war and the result of a well-planned strategy by Vladimir Putin.” This was stated by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov in a statement before the meeting of the government with business.
“Our young government is in the perfect storm. Unfortunately, Putin had a good strategy much earlier – by buying gas storage facilities in Germany, he drained gas levels in Western Europe to very low levels. Gazprom controls German gas storage facilities and controls the overall price in Europe”, said the Prime Minister.
“Europe is at war. Unfortunately, the war has come back to our continent, a war that we expected to be only part of history. War means 636 civilians killed, 46 children killed, between 6,000 and 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed and 11,000 Russian boys. Even 70,000 refugees from the war are entering Bulgaria. There is talk of an energy and gas crisis, these are also dimensions of the war. These are not separate crises,” he said.
“What is happening in Bulgaria is happening in each of the other EU member state”, Petkov is adamant. “When our economy is strained by good strategic planning by Russia, we need to say what our values are.”
One option is to hide in the grass and say: “I hope this storm passes us. The other option is to say no – we are tired of Bulgaria’s inability to decide its own fate and have no voice, always the Great Powers to decide something for us. We have our own voice,” said Kiril Petkov.