On February 23, 2015, Voice of America reported that Russian state-controlled Gazprom was accused of successfully blocking shale gas exploration in Bulgaria through a shadowy but well-funded Russian campaign to protect its regional energy dominance. According to The New York Times, Bulgaria banned fracking in 2012 and canceled a shale gas license that had been issued to Chevron. Former U.S. and European officials and energy experts outlined an effort by which Russian officials, working with foreign consultancies in Brussels, financially supported anti-fracking activities in several European countries. According to Margarita Assenova, an analyst at the Jamestown Foundation, “at least two Brussels-based consultancies allegedly transferred funds to several Bulgarian environmental groups through local corporate structures connected with Russia. The assets initially went through Overgas, Gazprom’s Bulgarian subsidiary, and the lobby supporting Russian nuclear energy projects. Both have been used in the past to promote Gazprom’s interests.”