EditThe TurkStream coalition latest assault on the Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector
The driving force behind this move is the familiar governing duo of former prime minister Boyko Borissov and Magnitsky-sanctioned politician Delyan Peevski
Bulgaria is witnessing a carefully orchestrated attempt to seize political control of the Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector (IGB), the one piece of pipeline infrastructure that still guarantees non-Russian gas supplies to my country and the wider region, writes Ilian Vassilev.
Ilian Vassilev is a former Bulgarian ambassador to Moscow, now a media publisher and commentator. His website Altanalyses is a content partner of EUalive.
The driving force behind this move is the familiar governing duo of former prime minister Boyko Borissov and Magnitsky-sanctioned politician Delyan Peevski – the nucleus of what can fairly be called the “TurkStream Coalition.” Their objective is simple: neutralize an independent operator whose very existence threatens the lucrative Russian-gas monopoly they have spent years cultivating.
The IGB was never their project. It was built only because Brussels and Washington twisted arms in Sofia and insisted on genuine diversification. In exchange for grudging cooperation, Borissov and his allies extracted a far bigger prize: the green light to turn Bulgaria into the Balkan hub for TurkStream, the pipeline that now pumps record volumes of Russian gas through Turkey and northward via Serbia to Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.
Today, with daily inflows exceeding 54–55 million cubic metres – well above the technical capacity of the Strandzha–Malkoclar entry point — they are working hand-in-glove with Turkey’s Botas to double that capacity and rebrand Russian molecules as “Turkish mix.” The purpose is transparent: pre-empt the Vertical Gas Corridor before American and other LNG can flow north from Greek terminals toward Romania, Moldova and Ukraine.
The TurkStream Coalition believes its moment has come. A new U.S. administration appears distracted by domestic priorities and the war in Ukraine; traditional State Department leverage looks diminished; and business envoys said to enjoy the personal trust of the President are reportedly taking centre stage. In Sofia, this is read as a window of opportunity.
The trigger for the current offensive was a series of decisions by the outgoing IGB management that struck at the heart of the Russian-aligned model. Capacity expansion from 3 to 5 billion cubic metres was accelerated, forcing the state-owned transmitter Bulgartransgaz to follow suit on the reverse border point. Tariffs for gas destined for Ukraine were slashed by 46 per cent, eroding the profitability of the Orbán route. And the company openly aligned itself with the EU-backed Vertical Gas Corridor. These were not mere commercial choices; they were acts of strategic defiance.
The response was swift. A coordinated political campaign was launched to remove Executive Director Teodora Georgieva and install a compliant team. Bulgarian nominees have already been rubber-stamped by the Supervisory Board, and regulatory approval is expected imminently. Once in place, the new leadership will have four immediate tasks: delay or block further capacity increases, restore higher tariffs, make IGB’s commercial offerings less attractive than Bulgartransgaz’s, and above all bring transit revenues back under direct political control.
This is not the first attempt. Similar efforts were rebuffed in 2017 when Greek and Italian shareholders refused to accept unilateral Bulgarian interference. The difference now is the intensity and the apparent confidence that Western resistance has weakened.
At stake is far more than the governance of a single pipeline company. An independent, efficiently run IGB proves that transparent management delivers lower costs, lower tariffs and robust profitability — without the political skimming that has long enriched Bulgaria’s energy oligarchs. That model is existentially dangerous to networks built on rent-seeking and Moscow’s patronage. Worse still, from their perspective, every cubic metre of non-Russian gas that flows through the IGB chips away at the geopolitical leverage Russia exercises through Hungary and its Balkan satellites.
If the capture succeeds, the entire Vertical Gas Corridor will be compromised at its most vulnerable link. Ukraine’s diversification options will shrink, Orbán’s brokerage profits will swell, and Bulgaria will slide deeper into energy dependence dressed up as “multi-source supply.”
Preventing this politicization is not merely a matter of corporate governance; it is a test of whether Bulgaria can still defend its own energy security and whether Europe is prepared to protect the few diversification successes it has managed to achieve in the region.
The IGB must remain independent. Anything less hands victory to those who have turned Bulgarian pipelines into instruments of foreign influence and personal enrichment.
Caption: The IGB interconnector was officially inaugurated on 1 October 2022 in the presence of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. [ICGB]
Updated: December 4, 2025 - 09:58
