A Prosecutor's Office document leaked to the Bulgarian press has cleared the former Cabinet of any accusations regarding the renegotiating of the gas supply contracts with Gazprom in 2006.

According to a report of the Bulgarian Trud Daily, which claims to have a copy of the 20-page paper, the former government technically did not “betray” Bulgaria's interests when dealing with the Russian energy giant in 2006.

The prosecution document has leaked about a week after the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has asked the Prosecutor's Office to investigate the natural gas price negotiations with the Russians in 2006, and Economy Minister Traikov blamed his predecessor from the Socialist-led government of Sergey Stanishev, Rumen Ovcharov, for succumbing to pressure from Gazprom.

Traikov has said that under the pre-2006 agreement Bulgaria got Russian natural gas for USD 83 per 1000 cubic meters but Ovcharov agreed to alter it according to Gazprom’s demands under which the sum that Bulgaria paid for Russian natural gas is supposed to reach the market prices over a transition period from April 1, 2007, till December 31, 2012. All contracts between Bulgaria and Gazprom are secret and the Russians have recently refused to make them public, according to Traikov.

The prosecution paper leaked Friday by the Trud Daily has been drafted as a result of a demand for an investigation of Bulgaria's dealings with Gazprom raised in 2009 by former MP Maria Kapon, who claimed that because of the renegotiated gas supply terms with Gazprom in 2006, Bulgaria lost BGN 2 B in 2007-2010.

Earlier this week Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev confirmed that his office had received a very thorough analysis with all necessary documents about the 2006 deal with Gazprom from the office of the Prime Minister, but made it clear that the prosecution might refuse to launch a new investigation if the submitted papers contain no new information which will mean that a new investigation will yield the same results as the one requested by Kapon.

The 20-page prosecutor's conclusions, which the Trud Daily claims to have obtained from “prosecution sources”, consist of a summary of written explanations before the State National Security Agency DANS by the persons who were involved in the talks with Gazprom in 2006 and who directly signed the renegotiated contract such as former Economy and Energy Minister Rumen Ovcharov, former Economy and Energy Deputy Minister Valentin Ivanov, who was a member of the Stanishev Cabinet from the quota of the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) and a Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian state company Bulgargaz, and the former Bulgargaz CEO Kiril Gegov.

There are also explanations from participants in the so called “expert groups” which handled the negotiations with the Russians.

The document signed by Prosecutor Anton Stefanov reveals certain questionable proceedings such as the fact that former Deputy Minister Ivanov signed the memorandum from December 18, 2006, with Gazprom without having read it.

However, it makes it clear that there are no grounds to raise charges against former Economy and Energy Minister Rumen Ovcharov.

In their accounts, the interrogated officials say that there was no written document for the forming of the expert group negotiating with Gazprom, and it was unclear who was part of it at what time.

The Sofia City Prosecutor's Office and DANS, however, have discovered that the initiative for the renegotiation of the natural gas prices for Bulgaria came from the Russian energy company at the end of 2005 and 2006.

All of the interrogated officials claim that Russia demanded that the 1998 contract under which Bulgaria got Russian natural gas for USD 83 per 1 000 cubic meters while the market price was USD 200 should be changed before its expiration in 2010.

In his explanation, ex Deputy Energy Minister Ivanov, who signed the annexes to the main contract in December 2006, reveals that there was a meeting between his superior Rumen Ovcharov and a delegation of Gazprom led by its Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev. This is when the Russian side demanded new terms for supplying natural gas to Bulgaria.

Ovcharov said the Bulgarian government did not want to change the existing contract but the Russian representatives threatened that “in that case after the expiration of the contract in 2011 the natural gas prices for Bulgaria will be whatever the Russian side decides.”

The issue about the outcome of the 2006 gas talks with Gazprom was raised again after July 1, 2010, when Bulgaria saw a staggering 25% natural gas price hike, which the Borisov government attributed primarily to the 2006 terms with the Russian supplier. The current Cabinet has initiated new negotiations with the Russians asking for reducing the current gas price by 25%-33% and insisting that the three intermediaries between Gazprom and Bulgargaz be removed.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!