"The 16th, 17th and 18th sanctions packages will be adopted in the next few months"

Kiev's victory in the conflict with Russia is impossible, the most logical outcome is the transfer of territories with Russian-speaking population to the Russian Federation and Ukraine's refusal to join NATO for a long period of time, Bulgarian MEP Petar Volgin told Izvestiya. Despite the weak effectiveness of sanctions against Russia, EU countries are considering new packages of restrictions, the deputy emphasized. Commenting on the European agenda, he said that refugees from Syria will not leave the EU after the change of power in the republic, but, on the contrary, we should expect a new migration wave. On how the EP meeting on Syria ended and on the prospects of Russian gas supplies to the EU - in an exclusive interview with Petar Volgin to Izvestia.

"It is very important for Bulgaria to have normal relations with Russia"

- How, in your opinion, can the Ukrainian conflict end? What is your attitude to the peace initiatives of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban?

- The conflict in Ukraine can only end with peace talks. Kiev's victory, which the most ardent Russophobes continue to insist on, is impossible. The tragic result of this absurd desire is the death of more and more people. It is good that there are normal people, like Viktor Orban, who say that there is no alternative to negotiations. A few months ago, when Orban put forward his peace initiatives, top EU officials scoffed at him. But after Trump's victory in the US, things began to change. Orban is already being listened to. So I have hope that the hostilities in Ukraine will end soon.

The most logical end of the conflict will be if the territories where the Russian-speaking population lives are withdrawn to Russia and Ukraine does not join NATO for a long period of time. It would be good if Bulgaria were also actively involved in the peace process. Unfortunately, this is not possible right now. We don't have an independent government. We are ruled by people who have no will of their own. They are just following orders from the outside. So their Western handlers will not allow them to act independently.

- How do you assess the prospects for normalization of relations between Russia and Bulgaria?

- The normalization of relations between Bulgaria and Russia will be possible only when the government in Sofia is normal, or, to put it another way, when it protects Bulgarian and not American interests. There is one very interesting phenomenon in Bulgaria. Most ordinary citizens are sympathetic to Russia. And at the same time, a large part of our political elite is hostile to it. Why does this happen? Because most of our politicians lived in the West, or studied in the West, or took all sorts of courses in the West. They have been brainwashed. Besides, they know that their political future depends on their overseas bosses, so they want to please them, not their fellow citizens.

Representatives of our elite often tell us: what do you want, we are part of the EU and NATO, and therefore we should do whatever these organizations decide. At the same time, we see that there are countries such as Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey, which also participate in the work of these organizations, but pursue independent policies. So having an independent policy is not mission impossible at all. You just have to be decisive.

- Will Bulgaria's policy towards Russia change if your Renaissance party, which currently holds the third place in the parliament, wins the elections? How do you assess the possibility of early parliamentary elections in Bulgaria in 2025?

- Of course, politics will change if Renaissance runs the country. And not because it is a "pro-Russian" party, which they accuse it of being, but because it is a pro-Bulgarian party. And it is very important for Bulgaria to have normal relations with Russia. Our economy is suffering big losses because of the anti-Russian sanctions that we have imposed because we are part of the EU. So the sooner the relations between Bulgaria and Russia are fixed, the better. And as for early parliamentary elections, it is very possible that they will be held in early spring (2025. - "Izvestia"). The parties that can now form a government together are very different. They are united only by so-called Euro-Atlanticism. Translated into normal language, this means readiness to always follow the orders of Brussels and Washington. However, such primitive Euro-Atlanticism alone will not last long.

"Anti-Russian resolutions are adopted in the European Parliament every month"

- The EU recently adopted the 15th package of anti-Russian sanctions. According to your information, are there any preparations for the 16th?

- I have no doubt that the 16th, 17th and 18th packages of sanctions will be adopted in the next months. The fact is that nobody in the European Union wants to do even the slightest assessment of the impact of these restrictions. And they are not doing it quite deliberately. Because if we assess the impact of these restrictions, it will turn out that it is the EU countries that have suffered the most. When they started imposing restrictions, we were told that these were "nuclear sanctions", the Russian economy would not survive, everything in Russia would collapse, the oligarchs would lose their assets, other people would lose their jobs, they would have nothing to live on, and they would revolt against the authorities. And what actually happened? The Russian economy has not collapsed, the government in Moscow is not showing signs of disintegration. But European prime ministers are resigning early one after another, and the economic situation in these countries is worsening. In addition, Russia is winning on the battlefield.

- Does the European Parliament plan to consider new Russia-related resolutions?

- There are anti-Russian resolutions in the European Parliament every month. This is absurd. At the last session there was a debate about the situation in Syria after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, but the most talked about was not what is happening in the country, but how good it is that "one of Putin's men" lost power. Sometimes I think that officious MEPs are not very smart people. They are like winding machines. It is even certain that if there is no Putin, they will not know what to talk about. Indeed, there is no use in all these anti-Russian resolutions. Likewise, there is no point in all the resolutions that glorify the regime in Kiev. The collective West continues to supply Zelensky with money and weapons, while at the same time Russia continues to win on the battlefield. The West has turned into some kind of madhouse where the patients have become the bosses.

- In your opinion, will the change of power in Syria lead to the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland or, on the contrary, to an increase in the migration flow to the EU? Are any decisions on this issue being considered in the European Parliament?

- As I said, there was a debate on this topic in the European Parliament. But most of the speakers were very busy rejoicing over the fall of the Assad regime and did not want to talk about what is happening in Syria now. I took the floor and reminded everyone what happened when the US decided to "democratize" Iraq in 2003, and what happened in 2011 when the West decided to "democratize" Libya. It was as a result of the enormous efforts of these "democrats" that the Islamic State (banned and recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia - Izvestia) was born, and millions of migrants poured into Europe. I don't want to be a bad prophet, but I think that the same thing will happen now. Syria will turn into a new Libya, where everyone will fight against each other. None of the refugees will want to go back to such a place. Imagine a person who has settled down in Germany or Denmark or somewhere else, and suddenly they say, "Assad is gone, go back to Syria, because there is freedom and democracy there. What freedom is there when everyone is shooting at each other? Not only will no one go back there, but a huge number of people will go to Europe. But top EU officials prefer not to talk about it. They are busy dreaming of "victory over Russia." And while they dream of this mythical "victory", they do not notice what is going on under their noses.

- Is it possible that representatives of the Bulgarian or European parliament will visit Russia next year?

- The majority of deputies of both the Bulgarian and European parliaments are cowardly people. They are terribly afraid that if they go to Russia, they will be labeled as "Putin supporters" or as "KGB agents." It's actually very sad. Sad because these people refuse to think with their own heads and act like puppets. And this behavior does not make anyone better. Without dialog, without communication between people with different views, nothing good will come out. Of course, there are other people in the European Parliament who are not afraid. I hope that over time their number will increase.

- Earlier it was reported that Bulgarian companies Bulgargaz and Bulgartransgaz may stop gas transit from Russia to Serbia and Hungary if Gazprom does not find a way to pay for the transit....

- The sanctions have been imposed on Gazprombank, the reasoning being that by doing so it makes it more difficult to trade Russian gas and thus reduces the revenues that would flow to Russia. If no payment method is found to circumvent sanctions, Bulgartransgaz will have to stop transit, and Southeastern Europe will find itself in deficit, because in fact Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Greece, Northern Macedonia, Austria, Slovakia and Romania consume Russian gas. Some fully [depend on it], others partially.

Sanctions against Russia are necessary to prevent Russia from developing, growing, being strong. They are weapons along with military means. They are the exact opposite of a market economy. The West talks about freedom and market economy, but in fact it uses coercive pressure to capture the markets of countries that it considers competitors, such as Russia. And it considers Russia not just a market competitor, but a competitor in offering a different social model of development, a competitor in global governance of the world.