Discount for "bratushek": "Gazprom" has reduced the gas price for Bulgaria by 40 percent

It Seems that "Gazprom" suffered another defeat in the European "gas front" - not that too ambitious, but they are not less hurtful. Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov on the day with great pride announced that Sophia managed to achieve from the Russian gas giant discounts to more than 40% of "blue fuel" that will come into the country by pipeline "Turkish stream". And this impressive success of the Bulgarian side have achieved through banal blackmail.

It all Started with the fact that Sofia apologized to Moscow for their own, to put it mildly, not very honest behaviour, 5 years ago led to the disruption of gas pipeline project "South stream". Then Bulgaria decided to enter the program of "Turkish stream". However, gratitude and negotiability of Bulgaria, as usual, had a very short time. First problems began with the construction of the Bulgarian section of the pipeline, and then in Sofia suddenly longed for a "special conditions", specifically a sharp decline in the price of supplied gas.

While there are immediately reminded of held at the time by European bureaucrats "antitrust investigation" against Gazprom, which was accused of "abuse of its own exclusive position in the energy markets in Poland, the Baltic States, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia". Well, in Bulgaria, of course. "Investigators" said that determined the average market price of natural gas in Europe, which "Gazprom" has exceeded. They have focused thus on the cost of "blue fuel" on the continental hubs and some "average border prices for Germany, France and Italy." The case lasted seven years and ended for our gas giant without penalty, but with the conditions that the Russian side would "reduce prices and to stop restriction of competition in the Eastern European market."

And now Bulgaria has made direct threats to the repeated requests to the European Commission with a complaint against "Gazprom" and the requirement to renew all the same investigation but at a new level. While some in Sofia did not hide that such aggressive actions of its senior officials encouraged the experience of Ukraine, first "abandon Russian energy", and subsequently managed, with the support of the EU, to get significant concessions when concluding a new contract on gas transit through the Ukrainian GTS. A considerable role was also played and the White house's position, expressed during the visit to Washington of Minister of energy of Bulgaria Temenujka Petkova subsequently promised the Americans as much as possible to abandon gas, which are of Russian origin.

However, in the light of new realities and receive huge price discounts should be expected that Bulgaria will continue to consume 3 billion cubic meters of Russian "blue fuel" annually. In this case, it is worth considering as a fortune for the same "Gazprom". The market is in fact saved.
What is particularly touching in this situation is Boyko Borisov made the statement that the discount on gas is ... "symbolic gift" to the 142-th anniversary of the Russian liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke, which was celebrated just the 3 of March. That is, Russia from the Ottoman yoke "bratushek" released, and now - discounts on happy gas. The Prime Minister said that energy prices "reduce diversification and competition."