The Greek government has offed to aid Bulgaria after Russia cut off gas supplies this week, with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussing the issue Wednesday with Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov.
A Greek official stated Wednesday that the country had already moved to send liquified natural gas to Bulgaria through a Greek terminal and Prime Minister Mitsotakis’s office stated that Grece would actively help Bulgaria deal with the consequence of the Russian shut down of gas.
Russian energy giant Gazprom released a statement on Wednesday noting that it would be cutting off gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland as neither country had agreed to pay for gas in Russian roubles, a demand made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March.
According to a report from the newspaper Ekathimerini, a delayed gas link between Greece and Bulgaria, the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), should also be ready by June of this year.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis also called for an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the move by Gazprom to cut off supplies to Bulgaria as Greece counts on Russian gas to supply around 30 per cent or more of its energy needs.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, meanwhile, labelled the Russian move as a breach of contract and compared it to blackmail.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made similar remarks on Wednesday stating, “unilaterally stopping delivery of gas to customers in Europe is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail.”
“This is unjustified and unacceptable. And it shows once again the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier,” she added.
The price of gas soared by 17 per cent on Tuesday evening over rumours that Russia had cut off gas supplies to Poland and then increased by over 20 per cent on Wednesday morning.