Russia was surrounding itself with “cordon sanitaire” of energy-dependant countries like Bulgaria and Hungary , a report of the US Heritage Foundation said.
Russia uses its energy resources to make the former Soviet countries more pliable.
The report said that the country aimed to keep resource transportation on the regional level rather than to allow it become pro-American.
To meet the goal, Russia located pipelines and gas storage facilities in Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece and Turkey.
Officials in these countries “have reportedly personally benefited from Russian energy developments to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars,” the report said.
Russia is actually “building and extending a network of politically influential pipelines to adjacent countries.”
Bulgaria takes part oil pipeline construction together with Russia and Greece. The pipeline will transport Russian oil from Bulgaria’s port of Bourgas to the Greek Alexandroupolis.
