Petar Vitanov: Freezing Botas contract is a serious break through.

Following the meeting between Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Bulgargaz and Botas signed a protocol to freeze the agreement between the two companies for 15 months, the Council of Ministers press service said.

During this period, the Bulgarian side will pay only for the capacity it uses, under improved conditions.

In response to opposition questions about why the agreement is being frozen if it had been presented as beneficial for Bulgaria, Petar Vitanov explained that it had been signed under entirely different circumstances and in a different international context.

According to him, at the time there was talk that Russian gas would no longer be available anywhere, while the country was facing a supply crisis and an inability to import gas from Russia.

This agreement was signed under completely different circumstances and in a different international environment — when it was being said that there would be no more Russian gas anywhere. When this agreement was signed, there was a preliminary arrangement with Hungary and Serbia. The next governments destroyed it and did not want to change the parameters of the agreement, Vitanov said.

He added that the agreement had been used as political chewing gum for personal attacks against Rumen Radev.

I think that with willpower, good results can be achieved, and when the parameters are announced, you will see that everything that has been renegotiated is actually of great benefit to Bulgaria, Petar Vitanov added.