OilPrice.com: Russia Behind Bulgarian Anti-Fracking Protests?

Pity the poor Eastern Europeans. Fifty years under the domination of their massive Soviet eastern neighbor then the collapse of Communism there two decades ago offered undreamed of opportunities to join both the European Union and NATO.
 

But they still remain dependent on the Russian Federation for the majority of their oil and gas needs, and the new capitalists in Moscow do not hesitate to charge the highest prices possible.
 

According a number of East European nations, particularly Poland and Bulgaria, are actively investigating the possibility of establishing hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") operations on their territory to develop an indigenous natural gas industry and undercut the Russian Federation’s state-owned natural gas monopoly Gazprom.
 

Mindful however of the possible negative environmental effects of fracking last month 166 members of the Bulgarian National Assembly’s 240 parliamentarians voted to impose an indefinite ban on shale gas exploration and extraction in Bulgaria using hydraulic fracturing or other similar technology.
 

Now a hard-hitting editorial in the Trud newspaper by Ivan Sotirov entitled, "Russian Lobby Against Shale Gas," accuses pro-Russian Bulgarian supporters of fomenting protests against shale gas operations in the country.  MORE