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Bulgarian FM: Russia has lost economic competition with Europe

10 June 2016 05:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. “Russia has lost economic competition with Europe and military competition with NATO”, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov has said at a roundtable in Sofia organized by the European Council on Foreign Relations, APA reports quoting Bulgarian media.

As arguments Mitov has pointed to the fact that the EU GDP is about 6 times the GDP of Russia and that Europe’s trade volume is 4 to 7 times Russia’s trade volume.

In the meantime though despite the trend of Moscow allocating more funds to military projects NATO has 10 times bigger financial resources, the Bulgarian Foreign Minister have said.

"Since the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is trying to restore its role as a world power, and for this purpose pursues an active foreign policy, which often ahead its economic potential. Russia has lost economic competition with Europe and military competition with NATO" - Mitov said.

The head of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims that the Central and Eastern Europe have become an arena where "competing ambitions of the East and possibilities of the West"