Despite steps taken by Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG (RAC MiG) over the last few months in order to agree with Bulgarian party on repair of MiG-29 aircraft operated by the country’s air forces, some officials keep ignoring Russia’s attempts to reach the only legit, mutually beneficial and most importantly – safe decision, which enables further operation of the jets. It was stated by RAC MiG CEO Sergey Korotkov while speaking about information on signing an agreement between Bulgaria and Poland for provision of MRO services for MiG-29 jets.

«In case of signing the agreement between Bulgaria and Poland for repair of RD-33 engines installed on MiG aircraft, we have no other options but to stop provision of MRO services for MiG-29 jets operated by Bulgarian air forces. This will put the legitimacy of further operation of these jets and safety of pilots into a question. We are sorry that such decision is based only on political situation and, most probably, it is driven by an “external pressure,” the corporation’s press-service noted.

«Terms and conditions offered by RAC MiG are more profitable for Bulgaria. Let me explain. Pricing offered by Poland and Russia is almost the same. But the service life guaranteed by Russia for these money was twice as long as the one offered by Poland,» he added.

According to Sergey Korotkov, despite this case, which deeply saddens us given the traditions of the long-term friendship between Russia and Bulgaria, we still hope to establish a mutually beneficial partnership, based on international laws. “Nevertheless, we are going to appeal the agreement due to obvious violation of our rights as the manufacturer of these jets. Once again, we would like to admit that no technical documentation or licenses for repair of MiG aircraft’s engines were handed over to Poland. In this regard, as we already said earlier, position of our Polish partners is not clear to us, because we had a long-standing partnership with Poland before,” he said.