site.btaVazrazhdane Calls on PM to Stop Listening to Those Telling Him Lukoil's Business Should Be Sold

Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov should stop listening to those around him who are telling him that Lukoil’s business in Bulgaria must be sold, the leader of Vazrazhdane, Kostadin Kostadinov, told reporters in Parliament here on Friday.

He was commenting on legislative amendments adopted earlier in the day whereby the sale of assets belonging to the Russian oil company Lukoil in Bulgaria will be allowed only with a decision of the Council of Ministers and following a positive opinion from the State Agency for National Security (SANS). 

According to Kostadinov, this constitutes direct interference in the affairs of a private company — and one of the largest in the world. Such intervention, he warned, could trigger countermeasures such as lawsuits and other actions by the owner, a major multinational corporation with bases in the Netherlands and Switzerland. 

It would be unfortunate if Bulgaria ends up paying tens of billions, Kostadinov commented.

Commenting on the latest US sanctions targeting Russia’s largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft, Kostadinov said that instead of figuring out how to steal Lukoil's business, so it can give to MRF-New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski or in order to make Ivaylo Mirchev (MP from Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria) happy, the Bulgarian Government should be making sure the oil refinery in Bulgaria continues to operate.