Finance Minister: Bulgaria’s Economy can Last 6 months if Russia Stops Oil and Closes the Bosphorus

“The Bulgarian economy can last 6 months if Russia stops the oil and if the Bosphorus is closed”. This was said during “Parliamentary Control” by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Asen Vassilev. He expressed confidence that the European Commission will enable Bulgaria to receive Russian oil, while at the same time looking for ways to diversify oil supplies.

"We can last six months when the Bosphorus is closed and Russian oil is shut down. This is the darkest scenario we can imagine, because it means that there is no place for a ship to enter the port of Rosenets, which is the main oil port in the country. There are buffers set in the budget that can be used for rapid response in such a scenario. The Bulgarian national interest, as I have repeatedly stated, is for us to obtain a derogation from the sanctions on oil on the one hand and on the other hand to gradually diversify oil suppliers. To build a highway, railway and oil pipelines such as Alexandroupolis-Burgas-Varna-Constanta".

Asen Vassilev clarified that the company "Lukoil-Neftochim" cannot be nationalized, because legally it is not Russian:

"At the moment, it would put Bulgaria in a huge international case, because we will expropriate shares in a private company that is not on the banned list. Lukoil has organized things so that the company is actually Swiss, not Russian-owned."

Earlier today, Vassilev announced that he had received information from the European Commission that Bulgaria would be included in the list of exceptions to which the oil embargo from Russia would not apply.

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