Bulgaria withdraws tax on Russian gas to Serbia and Hungary

A pro-government columnist suspects that the idea to impose a tax on the TurkStream gas pipeline was suggested to Bulgaria by the United States.

In Magyar Nemzet, Zsolt Bayer welcomes the decision of the Bulgarian government to cancel its plan to tax the Russian gas flowing through its territory to Serbia and Hungary. He remarks nevertheless that Bulgarian leaders were forced to retreat as Hungary threatened to block their country’s accession to the Schengen open border area. Bayer enumerates several occasions when the United States offered its own LNG gas to replace Russian supplies to Europe to prove that Washington has a vested interest in hindering the import of Russian gas to European countries. On the other hand, he remarks that the new Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov is a Harvard alumni, before asking whether we can be absolutely certain that the idea to impose an extra tax on the TurkStream gas above the normal transit fee originated from Bulgaria.

Tags: Bulgaria, TurkStream, US