Gazprom

"Bulgaria should close its ports and demand compensation from Gazprom for the suspended Russian gas" - this was called for by the fifth Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko in an interview with bTV.

The Russian government has authorized the temporary lifting of "mirror sanctions" and allowed for 90 days the flow of natural gas supplies from Yamal LNG to Gazprom Marketing & Trading Singapore Ltd, which is part of Gazprom Germany, shows a government decree on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

How will Europe pay for gas from Russia - in euros, dollars or rubles? In recent days, information has emerged that Germany and Italy have agreed to pay for Russian gas to Gazprom in rubles and will not stop their supplies. This is not true.

Leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Kornelia Ninova told bTV that Russia is a friendly country towards Bulgaria. According to her, this is the opinion of the majority of Bulgarians, and therefore a large percentage did not want to send military aid to Ukraine, which has been the subject of military action by Russia since February 24.

In early March, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki condemned Russian energy imports, saying it was not only gas "but also the blood of innocent people" that was pouring through Russian pipelines to the West.

British energy giant Shell yesterday said its net profit jumped 26 percent in the first quarter as soaring oil prices offset a sizeable charge linked to its Russia exit.

Profit after tax leapt to $7.1 billion (6.7 billion euros) compared with a year earlier, Shell said in a statement.

Bulgaria will sign a contract for the design of a new gas interconnector with Serbia, it became clear during a regional energy meeting in Sofia.

It was attended by the Ministers of Energy of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and North Macedonia.

The key topic of discussion during the meeting was energy security and independence of the whole region.

Romania's Energy Minister, Virgil Popescu, on Wednesday said Romania will produce more natural gas than it needs once it starts extracting gas from the Black Sea area - and will then be in a position to export to countries in the region, with Moldova a priority.

"We are seeing an unprecedented war in Ukraine that has cost many lives. We also see how energy is used as a weapon. This is so obvious because there are unilateral breaches of contracts by Gazprom." This was stated by Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov at the meeting dedicated to energy security, which is being held in Sofia.

As a candidate for membership of the EU, Serbia too is under pressure to join the Western sanctions on Russia, but has so far refused to do so, not least given the importance of Russia's United Nations Security Council veto when it comes to frustrating the international integration of Serbia's former southern province, Kosovo.