site.btaSocialists Broaden Scope of Motion for Extraordinary Sitting of Parliament to Add Scrapping of Russia Sanctions and Travel Ban List

Socialists Broaden Scope of Motion for Extraordinary Sitting of Parliament to Add Scrapping of Russia Sanctions and Travel Ban List

Sofia, August 10 (BTA) - A day after they said they want Parliament to hold an extraordinary meeting to lift a moratorium on the Belene N-plant construction project, the group of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) - Left Bulgaria submitted Wednesday a broadened motion that also proposes scrapping the sanctions against Russia and a travel ban list of Russian citizens.

Parliament is currently in summer recess between August 5 and 31.

BSP leader Kornelia Ninova said that this is the time for the government to show its true intentions. "Now is the time to see whether the power-holders have a genuine intent to restore dialogue and relations with Russia and provide the kind of legal guarantees that are needed to restore dialogue, or this is just a show put up for the sake of the presidential elections and winning over the confidence of Bulgarian people," she said.

The BSP leader said that Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov made "a major political gaffe" when he announced after a phone conversation with President Vladimir Putin the start of work towards resuming the energy projects - because the Russian side disproved that. Ninova quoted remarks by Putin on Tuesday that he sees a wish in Bulgaria to revisit the South Stream gas pipeline project but wishes are not enough and solid legal guarantees are needed, which do not exist as yet.

In Ninova's words, the Russian side "diplomatically referred the question to the working groups and an intergovernmental commission due to meet next year". "But in the meantime Turkish Stream is very much likely to get started and bypass Bulgaria," she added.

She suggested that Borissov's statement about resuming the energy projects was a move meant to launch his presidential campaign. "Why did he have to amplify things after his conversation with the Russian president? Because it was the start of his presidential campaign and he wants to convince Bulgarian people that he is changing the course of his foreign policy towards [closer ties with] Russia only to win their trust. But the Russian side exposed his move."

Borissov has never said that he intends to run for President but his party has not yet named its presidential candidate and, moreover, some read presidential ambitions between the lines of things he has said.