Russia conveniently blames "little Bulgaria" - EU source

Russia conveniently blames "little Bulgaria" - EU source

A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the pipeline project was abandoned, she told reporters in Sofia that her country "wants a project that is economically profitable and harmonized with EU regulations," the BTA agency said.

An unnamed EU source was quoted as saying that Putin, by stating that the reason for the scrapping of the pipeline was the fact Bulgaria had not issued permits to start building it, was attempting to blame that country for the failure of the prokect that actually came about because it was not economically profitable.

"The building of South Stream costs a lot. When oil and gas prices are falling, the building is not economically favorable. That project would cost Gazprom a lot of money and it is now convenient to find little Bulgaria to blame for the failure of the project," the anonymous source was quoted by the Interfax agency.

"The EU never said it did not like South Stream. We only warned that if a company wants to do business in the EU it must be in line with EU legislation, that is, it must respect the Third Energy Package. The same goes for a European company that must respect Russian legislation if it wants to do business in Russia," said the source.

Asked whether the abandoning of the pipeline would endanger Europe's gas supply, the source said that EU "has no problems with gas supplies."

As he announced that Russia was abandoning South Stream, Vladimir Putin on Monday suggested to Bulgaria to "demand loss of profit damages from the European Commission," considering the country could have been receiving around EUR 400 million annually through gas transit.