Bulgarian MPs from the ruling majority are preparing a law to free Russian property and give the Bulgarian state control over the huge Russian tourist resort of Kamchia on the Black Sea coast.
The Kamchia resort, advertised as a “centre for education, culture, recreation, sports, health, business and congress tourism”, is owned by the Russian capital, Moscow, but managed in Bulgaria by Bulgarian citizens who are not formally part of the EU sanctions regime. Ivaylo Mirchev describes the base as a Russian enclave on the Bulgarian coast operating for more than 14 years.
“The legislative initiative is long overdue, especially given Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. International sanctions against Russia have been in place since 2014, and new ones are being adopted in response to Russia’s unrelenting aggression,” said Ivaylo Mirchev, an MP from the We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition.
“In order for Bulgaria to fulfil its obligations to enforce these international restrictive measures, a specific law must be adopted,” he added.
Shortly before the start of the war in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Russia’s Kamchia Centre could be used to spread Russian influence in Europe.
A week ago, Euractiv’s partner Dnevnik.bg reported that Moscow’s property department had requested that a director of Russian oil company Lukoil Neftochim Burgas be appointed as head of the Kamchia centre.
Moscow’s directive on the Kamchia resort comes amid the blocking or confiscating of Russian property in other EU countries. Two weeks ago, the Latvian parliament passed a special law confiscating the House of Moscow in Riga, which the Moscow city government also owned.
A possible future transfer of ownership of the Russian Centre to a private Russian company could prevent confiscation in favour of the state and increase the value of Lukoil’s assets in Bulgaria, which are also up for sale.
In 2023, Bulgaria effectively boycotted EU sanctions against Russian citizens and companies imposed since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2017, EU sanctions were extended to hundreds of Russian citizens and companies.
However, Bulgaria was the only member state that did not impose sanctions on any Russian citizens or companies on the EU sanctions list because the legal procedures were designed not to work.
In Bulgaria, about 300,000 Russians own more than 500,000 properties, according to the latest data published by the authorities in 2019.
However, the tax authority, which is supposed to apply the EU sanctions regulation and recognise this, has not yet done so.
While the Bulgarian legal system only provides a procedure to seize assets, not to freeze them, EU countries like Bulgaria must directly apply EU sanctions regulations, meaning that tax authorities should initiate freezing procedures even if no national regulation provides for such procedures.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
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Source: euractiv.com
