Bulgaria Links Defense Modernization with Economic Stimulus
Bulgaria is moving forward with plans to modernize its armed forces
Russia’s Rosatom has said it is ready to consider the option of building new nuclear power plants in Bulgaria despite the failure of an agreement to build one in Belene.
“Everything is negotiable,” TASS quoted Rosatom CEO Sergey Kirienko as saying in an interview with TV channel Russia 24 on Thursday.
"We work with the Bulgarian nuclear energy sector at present. If decisions are of professional and not political nature, we’ll always reach an agreement,” Kirienko added.
The head of the Russian state atomic energy corporation spoke on the same day when Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borisov announced in Sofia that the International Court of Arbitration in Paris had ruled in favour of Russia’s Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of Rosatom, over the abandoned plan for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belene, on the Danube river.
Rosatom filed the lawsuit against Bulgaria’s state-owned National Electricity Company (NEK) after Borisov’s first cabinet ditched in March 2012 the Belene project, for which two reactors of 1,000 MW each and the respective power generation equipment had already been ordered by a previous government back in 2008.
While Bulgaria says that NEK will have to pay EUR 550 M to Atomstroyexport in compensation for the ordered equipment and the work done on the project, Rosatom claims that the arbitration court had awarded EUR 620 M to the Russian company.
Bulgaria will have to decide now whether to buy one of the reactors, which has already been built, or agree with Russia to sell it to a third party.
Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has said that Russia’s war against Ukraine will only truly end with the death or resignation of Vladimir Putin
Russia’s recently dismissed Transport Minister Roman Starovoit has reportedly died by suicide
Andrei Badalov, vice president of Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline company Transneft
Drone attacks were reported across multiple Russian regions on the night of July 2-3, with explosions confirmed in the cities of Lipetsk and Yelets in Lipetsk Oblast
New evidence has emerged suggesting that Russian forces were responsible for the missile strike on Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243
European Union leaders have agreed to prolong all existing sanctions against Russia for another six months, but failed to reach a consensus on the adoption of a new, 18th package of restrictive measures
Borderless Bulgaria: How Schengen Benefits Are Transforming Trade and Logistics
Bulgaria's Mortality Rate Remains Highest in Europe