\n<\/p>\n
The oil terminal\u2019s piers stretch just a few score yards into the Black Sea from the Bulgarian coast. For 25 years, the Russian crude they received fed a sprawling network of economic and political influence that helped keep Bulgaria tethered tightly to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
How much oil arrived at the terminal for use by a nearby Russian-owned refinery was something only the Russians knew: they controlled the piers, the meters recording the volumes delivered and the security force guarding the perimeter fences.<\/p>\n
In recent months, however, Russia has steadily lost its grip on the Rosenets Oil Terminal, near the Black Sea port city of Burgas.<\/p>\n
Bulgaria has taken back control of the piers and has laid plans to take over management of the refinery from its Russian owner, Lukoil, if it balks at processing non-Russian oil. In January, Bulgaria halted shipments of Russian crude.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Russia\u2019s increasing loss of control of the facility highlights an unintended \u2014 and, for Moscow, undesirable \u2014 consequence of its invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Even as Russia\u2019s military battles to entrench its occupation of territory grabbed from Ukraine on the other side of the Black Sea, Moscow has suffered setbacks on previously friendly terrain in Bulgaria. Long bound to Russia by history, common Slavic roots and a shared Orthodox Christian faith, Bulgaria was once so loyal to the Kremlin it asked to be absorbed into the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Past loyalty has now curdled into deep distrust of Russia among the country\u2019s main political parties over the war in Ukraine. When Russia invaded, Bulgaria\u2019s government was dominated by pro-Western reformers and it took a hard line against Moscow, expelling 70 Russian diplomats over espionage concerns and arresting several Bulgarian officials suspected of spying for Moscow.<\/p>\n
That government, led by Kiril Petkov, collapsed a few months later but rival parties have often taken an even tougher line, except for a far-right ultranationalist group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Dependent on Russia for around 95 percent of its natural gas before the war in Ukraine, Bulgaria now imports no Russian gas. It also ditched Rosatom, Russia\u2019s nuclear power company and a longtime partner, in favor of America\u2019s Westinghouse for its supply of nuclear fuel and the construction of new reactors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be 100 percent independent in energy from Russia,\u201d said Nikolai Denkov, who, before stepping down in March as prime minister, oversaw a drive to break Lukoil\u2019s grip on the oil terminal and the nearby Neftohim refinery. \u201cEveryone knows that Lukoil is ultimately controlled by the Kremlin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lukoil disputes that, insisting it is a private company focused on business. But the company, which produces nearly all of Bulgaria\u2019s gasoline and jet fuel at its Neftohim refinery, operates 220 gas stations in the country and has become the most visible emblem of what many view as Russia\u2019s malign influence in Bulgaria, the poorest country in the European Union.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemove Lukoil from the equation and Russia\u2019s influence in Bulgaria crumbles,\u201d said Ilian Vassilev, a former ambassador to Moscow.<\/p>\n
Complaining of \u201cunfair, biased political decisions\u201d against its business, Lukoil announced in December that it was reviewing its strategy in Bulgaria with a view to perhaps selling the Neftohim refinery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The unraveling of a once intimate relationship by the authorities in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, has stirred unease on the Black Sea coast, where Russians were long a mainstay of the tourism and real estate sectors but are now mostly staying away. Lukoil is the area\u2019s biggest employer, with more than 5,000 people dependent for work on its refinery, oil terminal and related ventures, according Dimitar Nikolov, the mayor of Burgas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cEvery family in Burgas has a relative who has worked at the refinery at some point,\u201d Mr. Nikolov said. He said he did not care whether Russia keeps ownership of the refinery or sells it so long as it keeps working and paying salaries \u2014 and keeps funding the city\u2019s volleyball club<\/a>, a frequent national champion, and other good-will investments.<\/p>\n The Russia Center, a private visa agency in the city whose main business used to be helping Russians get residency permits, still flies a Russian flag at the entrance. But wary of upsetting the Ukrainians and other Russian-speaking clients it now needs to offset a decline in business from Russia, it also displays a digital sign reading, \u201cNo to War!\u201d<\/p>\n The manager, Plamen Dotor, said Russians were still welcome in Bulgaria, \u201cbut it is difficult for them now because of geopolitics\u201d and because of the cancellation of many of their visas and what, before the war, were at least four daily flights between Burgas and Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Few ordinary Bulgarians express hostility to Russia but, according to a recent opinion poll, only 20 percent approve of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, compared with 58 percent before he invaded Ukraine. Bulgaria\u2019s fractious politicians \u2014 so bitterly divided and unable to cooperate that there have been five general elections since 2021 \u2014 have found rare common cause against Russia and Lukoil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cLukoil\u2019s influence here has been huge and very bad,\u201d said Delyan Dobrev, chairman of the Bulgarian Parliament\u2019s energy committee. \u201cWe have to do everything to show that they are not wanted here. We don\u2019t want Lukoil,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n When the European Union prohibited seaborne transfers of Russian crude in June 2022, the Bulgarian government pleaded for an exemption, saying that an end to shipments would cripple its biggest industrial enterprise, the Lukoil-owned refinery, which used only Russian crude, and send gasoline prices soaring. To avoid that, Bulgaria secured the right to skirt the E.U.-imposed ban until the end of this year.<\/p>\n But, in a sign of how far the war in Ukraine has shifted Bulgaria\u2019s political winds against Russia, the government at the time \u2014 headed by Mr. Petkov\u2019s pro-Western party, We Continue the Change \u2014 found itself under heavy fire from previously Moscow-friendly political forces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n