Boyko Borissov, leader of Bulgaria’s ruling GERB party, has announced talks with US investors to expand the TurkStream pipeline extension – currently the sole route for Russian pipeline gas to Central Europe and nearly fully supplied by Gazprom.
Bulgarian PM Rossen Zhelyazkov also confirmed ongoing negotiations with a US hedge fund, but stated that the government is not yet ready to disclose further details.
“There is no talk of a sale (of the gas pipeline), but rather of investment and expansion of its capacity,” Borissov said on Wednesday night.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that US hedge fund Elliott Management, led by Republican-aligned billionaire Paul Singer, is pursuing a deal to acquire a stake in the Bulgarian segment of the TurkStream pipeline.
While the pipeline infrastructure through Turkey and Bulgaria represents Gazprom’s only current access point to the European market, it is legally classified as exclusive state property in Bulgaria and cannot be sold, Euractiv has confirmed.
Bulgaria earns more than $300 million annually from transiting Russian gas to Serbia and Hungary.
Speaking to Euractiv, Ruslan Stefanov, executive director of the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), warned that without a formal EU ban on Russian gas imports, such a deal would run counter to European strategic interests.
“A US investment of this kind would only make sense if sanctions are imposed on Russian gas imports into the EU. In that case, expanding gas infrastructure in Bulgaria could facilitate increased imports of liquefied natural gas, including American LNG, into Central Europe,” Stefanov said.
If no such sanctions are introduced, he warned, the investment would effectively support the expansion of Russian gas transit – directly undermining EU climate and security goals, as well as the European Commission’s declared intention to phase out Russian gas imports by 2027.
Turkstream or Northstream 2 revival?
According to Stefanov, the talks between Bulgarian authorities and US investors come amid broader speculation in the media about potential high-level contacts between Washington and the Kremlin, including suggestions of a possible revival of the Nord Stream project.
“This speculation is most likely attempts by Russian intermediaries to present US-Russia negotiations on Ukraine as a done deal – which clearly is not the case," he said.
"The TurkStream initiative may be part of the same narrative, using Bulgaria’s eagerness to curry favor with influential actors in Washington. Still, a deal remains unlikely, as it could directly threaten both US and EU strategic interests,” Stefanov concluded.
According to data from the CSD, the Russian state budget receives over $10 billion annually from oil and gas sales in Central and Eastern Europe – revenue that is used, it warns, to fund its unprovoked war against Ukraine.
(Euractiv, May 15, 2025)
