Bulgaria’s ex-energy chief charged over Russian gas cutoff

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian prosecutors have charged a former energy minister in the previous, pro-Western government with mismanagement that allegedly caused losses of 45 million euros ($48 million) to the country’s major state-run gas operator. The Sofia prosecution office said in a statement Wednesday that Alexander Nikolov and two other energy officials had threatened the public gas supplies of the state gas company Bulgargaz in the country. Nikolov, who was energy minister between Dec. 2021 and Aug. 2022, denied any wrongdoing and told reporters that “the charges boil down to Bulgaria’s decision not to give in to the extortion by Gazprom and Russia”.