This is the best summary I could come up with:

“The Bulgarian government is trying to send a clear signal to its allies in the U.S. and in Europe that it’s sticking with the Euroatlantic agenda of undermining Russian influence,” said Martin Vladimirov, a senior analyst at the Center for the Study of Democracy think tank.

When Bulgaria imposed the €10 per megawatt-hour tax on Russian gas transiting the country from Turkey last month, it argued the move would help raise €1.2 billion in much-needed cash while hitting Moscow’s military revenues.

András Gyürk, an MEP from Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, said the “Bulgarian decision undermines the security of supply of EU member states,” warning it could jeopardize the 55 percent of gas imports transiting Bulgaria to southeastern Europe and cause prices to jump ahead of winter.

The tax has “no enforcement mechanism” and a low non-compliance fee of up to €50,000, Vladimirov pointed out, adding that the government knows Russia’s state-run gas firm Gazprom can “launch an arbitration case against Bulgaria” and that it could win.

With the Turkish-Bulgarian pipeline able to process up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas with some technical adjustments, that means Moscow could supply all the extra demand in southeastern Europe and the Western Balkans that’s not already contracted to them, according to Săbăduș,.

Bulgaria’s gas gambit means “bypassing the diversification policy, getting dependent once again on Russia — and now on Turkey as well — giving them money and yet again a leverage on the EU,” said a diplomat from one of the bloc’s countries, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

The original article contains 1,463 words, the summary contains 259 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!