The oil terminal’s quay stretches just a few dozen yards from the Bulgarian coast to the Black Sea. For 25 years, the Russian crude they received has fed a vast network of economic and political influence that has helped Bulgaria maintain close ties to the Kremlin.
How much oil arrives at the terminal for use by a nearby Russian refinery is known only to the Russians: they control the terminal, the meters that record the throughput and the security forces who guard the perimeter fence.
In recent months, however, Russia has gradually lost control of the Rosenets oil terminal near the Black Sea port city of Burgas.
Bulgaria has taken back control of the terminal and has drawn up plans to take over management of the refinery if Russian owner Lukoil is unwilling to process non-Russian oil. In January, Bulgaria halted shipments of Russian crude oil.
Russia’s growing loss of control over the facility underscores the unintended consequences of its invasion of Ukraine and is unwelcome for Moscow.
While Russia fights militarily to solidify its occupation of territory seized from Ukraine across the Black Sea, Moscow has suffered setbacks in previously friendly territory in Bulgaria. Bulgaria has long had close ties with Russia due to history, shared Slavic roots and shared Orthodox Christian faith, and Bulgaria was once so loyal to the Kremlin that it asked for annexation to the Soviet Union.
What used to be loyalty has now turned into a deep distrust of Russia by the country’s main political parties over the war in Ukraine. When Russia invaded, the Bulgarian government, dominated by pro-Western reformists, took a hard line against Moscow, expelling 70 Russian diplomats for espionage and arresting several Bulgarian officials suspected of spying for Moscow.
Kirill Petkov’s government collapsed a few months later, but with the exception of far-right ultranationalist groups, rival parties tended to take a harder line.
Before the war in Ukraine, Bulgaria relied on Russia for about 95% of its natural gas and now no longer imports Russian natural gas. It also ditched Russian nuclear power company and long-time partner Rosatom, opting instead for U.S. firm Westinghouse to supply nuclear fuel and build new reactors.
“We need to be 100% independent from Russia in terms of energy,” said Nikolai Denkov, who stepped down as prime minister this month and led an effort to break Lukoil’s hold on the oil terminal and nearby Nev. Operations controlled by Toshim Refinery. “Everyone knows that Lukoil is ultimately controlled by the Kremlin.”
Lukoil disputes this, insisting it is a private company focused on business. But the company produces nearly all Bulgaria’s gasoline and jet fuel at its Neftohim refinery, operates 220 filling stations in the country and has become the clearest symbol of what many see as Russia’s malign influence in Bulgaria, Europe’s poorest country. alliance.
“Take Lukoil out of the equation and Russian influence in Bulgaria collapses,” said Ilian Vassilev, a former ambassador to Moscow.
Lukoil has complained of “unfair and biased political decision-making” about its operations and announced in December that it was reviewing its strategy in Bulgaria with a view to the possible sale of the Neftohim refinery.
Authorities in the Bulgarian capital Sofia have broken down once-close ties, sparking unease along the Black Sea coast where Russians have long been a mainstay in the tourism and real estate industries but now mostly stay away. Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov said Lukoil is the region’s largest employer, with more than 5,000 employees relying on its refineries, oil terminals and related businesses.
“Every family in Burgas has a relative who worked in the refinery,” Mr. Nikolov said. He said he didn’t care whether Russia retained ownership of the refinery or sold it, as long as work and wages continued to be paid and the refinery continued to be funded. City Volleyball Clubregular national championships, and other benevolent investments.
The Russian Center, a private visa agency in the city whose main business used to be helping Russians obtain residence permits, still flies a Russian flag at the entrance. But to avoid upsetting Ukrainians and other Russian-speaking customers, it now needs to offset a decline in Russian business, so it’s also displaying a digital sign that reads “No to war!”
Manager Plamen Dotor said Bulgaria still welcomes Russians “but it’s difficult for them now because of geopolitics” and because many of their visas have been canceled and before the war there were at least 10 flights a day between Bulgarians. There are four flights. Burgas and Russia.
Few ordinary Bulgarians express hostility to Russia, but according to a recent poll, only 20 percent supported Russian President Vladimir V. Putin before he invaded Ukraine. This proportion is 58%. Bulgaria’s fractious politicians – bitterly divided and unable to work together, having held five general elections since 2021 – have found a rare common cause against Russia and Lukoil.
“Luxil’s influence here is huge and very bad,” said Delyan Dobrev, chairman of the Bulgarian parliament’s energy committee. “We have to do everything we can to show that they are not wanted here. We do not want Lukoil,” he said.
When the European Union banned seaborne shipments of Russian crude in June 2022, the Bulgarian government asked for an exemption, saying halting shipments would cripple refineries owned by Lukoil, its largest industrial enterprise, which uses only Russian crude and sends Gasoline prices soared. To avoid this, Bulgaria was given the right to circumvent the EU ban until the end of this year.
But the government at the time, led by Mr Petkov’s pro-Western We Continue to Change party, found itself under heavy fire from Moscow, demonstrating the extent to which the war in Ukraine had changed Bulgaria’s political winds vis-à-vis Russia. Friendly political force.
The party’s enemies accuse the party of aiding Russia and its war by pushing for exemptions and delaying their end, even as evidence appears Lukoil is exploiting loopholes to ship Russian oil outside Bulgaria.
“They have always boasted that they are the West’s biggest ally in Bulgaria, but they want to keep Russian oil supplied,” Dobrev said. His party, GERB, had prided itself on maintaining good relations with Russia and its energy companies.
In 2020, GERB leader and former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov joined Putin in Turkey to celebrate the opening of the Turkstream pipeline, which enables Russian energy giant Gazprom Ability to deliver goods to Serbia, Hungary and Bosnia via Bulgaria, bypassing Ukraine.
In a 2006 cable to Washington leaked by WikiLeaks, John R. Beyrle, then the U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria, said that Mr. Borisov, then the mayor of Sofia, and Lukoil long-term partners “with close economic and political ties.” Bulgaria boss Valentin Zlatev has been described as a “kingmaker” and “power broker”. Mr. Zlatev has since left Lukoil.
“We have tamed the dragon, but we have not killed it yet,” said Martin Vladimirov, director of the energy and climate program at the Center for Democratic Studies in Sofia. He added that taking control of the Lukoil refinery would not only have an impact on energy Security is vital, but also crucial to the future health of a political system that has been deformed for years by the “cancer of Russian money.”
“The only way to completely break away from Russia,” he said, “is to kick Lukoil out.”
Mayor Burgas said most of the refinery’s more than 100 Russian executives have gone home.
Since January, the plant has had to use non-Russian oil and slash output. Lukoil declined a request to visit the refinery.
In 1999, when Lukoil took control of the refinery from the Bulgarian government in a privatization deal tainted by corruption allegations, the arrival of the deep-pocketed Rosneft “didn’t seem like a bad idea,” pro- Dimitar Naydenov of Rosneft recalls. Member of the Western Parliament from Burgas. “But we were dealing with a different Russia. Russia had changed and we had to stop it from exporting fear and corruption along with the oil.”
Borjana Zambazova Reporting from Sofia, Bulgaria.
