MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said in an interview with Russia’s Kommersant daily that he intend to extend once again his invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin to pay an official visit to Bulgaria this year.

"We have an agreement in principle with the president of Russian on his visit to Bulgaria in 2018, when we jointly celebrate the 140th anniversary of the end of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and the liberation of Bulgaria," Radev said.

"But certainly Mister Putin was unable to schedule the exact date of his visit before the (Russian) presidential election. I will again extend my invitation in Sochi," he said adding that "such visit will create favorable conditions for the development of bilateral cooperation."

The Bulgarian president begins on Monday his two-day official visit to Russia. Radev has a scheduled meeting on Monday in Moscow with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and on Tuesday he is set for talks with President Putin in Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi.