Bulgarian Parliament Discusses Lifting Sanctions on Russia for Military, Energy Needs

MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. Proposals to lift all sanctions on Russia and potentially revive relations with Moscow are being discussed at the Bulgarian parliament, Angel Georgiev, a Bulgarian lawmaker, told TASS in an interview. "There are proposals at the Bulgarian parliament to do exactly this - remove all sanctions on Russia. We have MiG-29 aircraft, and we need to have their engines replaced. Russian companies should handle this," he explained. "We have proposed lifting sanctions on Russian fuel, energy sanctions, and sanctions targeting the maintenance of these aircraft," said Georgiev who recently led a parliamentary delegation to Russia. Meanwhile, new Prime Minister Rumen Radev’s first meetings were aimed at "strengthening cooperation with Euro-Atlantic partners and governments," Germany in particular, Georgiev noted. "The only difference is that the new authorities do not have overtly anti-Russian rhetoric, but this is not enough," he argued. Bulgaria’s foreign minister who held the post of a deputy foreign minister in the previous government is a woman who is openly Russophobic, Georgiev continued. "She said the sanctions against Russia make sense only if they can do it harm. Therefore, the government should negotiate working together with the United States to jointly impose sanctions in order to put as much pressure on Russia as possible," the lawmaker quoted her as saying.