Then: Meanwhile, Russia was not sitting idly and watching the multinational Princes trying to pick its pockets. As the Associated Press reported on July 27, 1999, Greece and Russia, along with Bulgaria, agreed to step up efforts for the construction of a Greco-Russian pipeline to carry Russian crude oil through Bulgaria and Greece. The 285-kilometer-long pipeline would link the ports of Burgas in Bulgaria and Alexandroupolis in northern Greece, allowing Russia to export oil through the Black Sea, while bypassing the Bosphorus in Turkey (see the map).