Kremlin Doubts Possibility of Renewal of Belene NPP, South Stream Projects

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, former Bulgarian Air Force Commander Rumen Radev won the second round of presidential elections with 59.4 percent of votes, while his opponent Tsetska Tsacheva from the country's ruling GERB party gained 36.64 percent of votes. Radev is considered to have pro-Russian position, which could lead to possible strengthening of relations between the two countries.

"As it looks now, the prospects are minimal," Peskov said, answering the question whether there was a chance for renewing the NPP and gas pipeline projects.

The Belene NPP was set to be a joint Bulgarian-Russian project, constructed by Bulgaria's National Electric Company NEK, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and its subsidiary Atomstroyexport. In 2010, the construction of the plant was frozen due to the long-running unsuccessful talks about cost and redeemability of the project, and then halted in March 2012 by the Bulgarian government. However, since 2013 Sofia has occasionally claimed about possible restart of the project.

The South Stream project assuming transporting gas from Russia through the Black Sea to Bulgaria implementation was abandoned due to European Commission claims that the project was allegedly in breach of the EU third energy package, under which the same company cannot own the gas and operate the pipeline.