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Emerging Europe: TurkStream begins pumping Russian gas to Bulgaria, bypassing Ukraine

By Emerging Europe.

Published Jan. 3, 2020 at 3:44 pm

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (R) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin attend a ceremony to mark the completion of the sea part of the TurkStream gas pipeline, in Istanbul, on Nov. 19, 2018.

Photo by AFP

As dawn broke on New Year’s Day, Bulgaria began taking delivery of Russian natural gas via the TurkStream pipeline.

The country’s energy minister, Tememoujka Petkova, has claimed that the move will save Bulgaria tens of millions of euros per year in fees by avoiding transit through Ukraine and Romania.