Bulgaria has just lived through one of its most breath-taking 24 hours in recent history. Spanning January 17 and 18, the visit by Russian president Vladimir Putin, his last international trip in this capacity, had such intensity and tangible and broad-reaching results that Bulgaria has yet to analyse the aftermath of it all. The record and importance of agreements was impressive, the number of meetings – multi-level and in the dozens.

The visit was about multi-billion contracts in the energy sector, agreements in the tourism, transport and scientific and cultural fields, about Bulgarian archives stored in Russia. It was about meetings between mayors of capitals and a bilateral business forum for small and medium enterprises.

A well-orchestrated endeavour always results in a highly efficient event and it was clear from the composition of the delegation that many a high-profile Russian official had given input into the visit.

Putin arrived with a full suite of officials. The delegation included the head of gas giant Gazprom and Putin’s pick for next president, Dmitriy Medvedev, Moscow mayor Yuriy Luzhkov, the head of Atomstroyexport and dozens of Russian business people. They all took part in meetings with peers, struck agreements and built contacts.

The Russian machine was so efficient, so well prepared that it pushed through a surprise agreement, on the South Stream gas pipeline construction. The CEOs of both companies involved in building the project, a 900km pipeline to Austria and Italy and a joint venture between Gazprom and its Italian peer ENI, were in Sofia to broker Bulgaria’s agreement, an improbable option given the pre-visit statements from top Bulgarian officials.

The Putin-Purvanov marathon talks on the night of January 17 on South Stream-related points of argument prompted a Cabinet special session the next day. That afternoon, January 18, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev announced that Bulgaria and Russia had signed an agreement to regulate ownership and construction of the South Stream pipeline on Bulgarian territory.

The agreement entitles Bulgaria to a 50 per cent stake in the Bulgarian section of the pipeline. Stanishev said the stake was sufficient to defend Bulgaria’s national interests. Bulgargaz was named as the Bulgarian party in the project.

Bulgaria will also get compensation in case the pipeline fails to run at full capacity, projected at 31 billion cu m a year. The agreement is valid for a period of 30 years with the option for five-year extensions after that.

Bulgaria will assign the project national priority status, which will accelerate procedures related to the land the pipeline will be built across. The two sides have yet to agree whether the land will be expropriated or rented.

To Russia this represents a landmark agreement too. It will be the first time a Russian company will own a pipeline network beyond its borders.

In addition, Bulgaria’s agreement brings the project a step closer to implementation. At present, Gazprom and ENI are planning the route of the pipeline. Plans are to start construction work in 2009 and complete them by 2015.

If the timetable runs as scheduled, the project will come to fruition faster than its rival Nabucco, a project that circumvents Russia and that the European Commission has put as top priority. The EC remained reserved on the news and reiterated South Stream was not a priority project.

The “surprise” contract came alongside two expected, yet no less important, energy agreements. The heads of Russian nuclear power giant Atomstroyexport and Bulgaria’s power grid operator National Electric Company (NEC) signed the contract to build Bulgaria’s second nuclear power plant at Belene.

To fast-track the project, Russia has also promised 3.8 billion euro in loans in case Bulgaria is not able to raise the funds another way. The funds have already been itemised as expenditure in the Russian budget 2008 and are ready to be released, Putin said at the news conference on January 18.

In addition, officials rubber-stamped the agreement on the construction of the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline despite vociferous protests by local environmental organisations, Bourgas citizens and right-wing parties.

Purvanov dubbed signing of the three energy contracts a “grand slam”. Right-wing political parties, however, interpreted the inroads the Russian energy sector had made on the use of Bulgaria as a “Trojan horse”.

The number of agreements spanned beyond energy. As expected, the contracts discussed included a transport agreement to link the port of Bourgas to the Russian port of Caucasus as well as bilateral agreements on tourism and scientific and cultural spheres.

Purvanov also raised the issue of returning Bulgarian national World War 2 archives currently held in Russia. All archives that were outlined in a written request to Russian authorities would be repatriated, Putin told a news conference January 18. To date, Russia had not received a formal request, he said.

In less than 24 hours Bulgaria and Russia strengthened – or grew ever more dependent on, depending on the interpretation – Russia’s energy resources. The effect of these agreements is huge, yet how big will depend on Russia’s success in outpacing rival projects.