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Russia to refuse to repair Bulgarian fighters if Bulgaria, Poland conclude contract

Russia will discontinue the support of the MiG-29 planes operated by the Bulgarian Air Force if a contract is signed with Poland on the repair of the RD-33 engines powering the MiG jets

© EPA/JAKUB KAMINSKI

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MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS-DEFENSE/. Russia will not maintain the Bulgarian Air Force (BulAF) Mikoyan MiG-29 (NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) fighters, if Bulgaria awards Poland a contract for maintaining them, MiG Corp. Director General Sergei Korotkov told journalists on Friday.

"If Bulgaria and Poland sign an agreement on the repair of the RD-33 engines powering the MiG jets, this will leave us no other choice than to discontinue the support of the MiG-29 planes operated by the Bulgarian Air Force," Korotkov said.

He explained that in such a case the legality of the further operation of the fighters as well as the safety of their pilots would be questionable. "We deplore that a decision like that has been taken proceeding from the considerations of political expedience alone and, most likely, has resulted from outside pressures," he added.

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As was reported in the press, the Bulgarian government gave green light to the signing of a Bulgarian-Polish intergovernmental agreement on repairing BulAF’s Russian-made MiG-29 planes. Poland is to repair the engines and other equipment of six BulAF MiG-29s. Bulgarian Defense Minister Nikolai Nenchev and Polish Vice-Premier/Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak signed the agreement.

Then, the MiG Corp. director general notified Bulgarians in an official letter that the Bulgarian MiG-29 fighters could not be repaired in Poland, stressing: "The Russian side has not issued Poland a licence and the relevant technical publications for the repair of the engines of the planes."

According to US publication Military Balance, BulAF operates 12 MiG-29A (Fulcrim-A) fighters and four MiG-29UB (Fulcrum-B) combat trainers.

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