Svetoslav TodorovSofiaBIRNFebruary 13, 202316:13Bulgarian politicians designated as corrupt by the US and UK, including former ministers and various pro-Russian figures, have either shrugged off sanctions or as in one case, have made a boast about it.
A man enters the National Assembly before the new parliament’s first session in Sofia, 19 October 2022. EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV
Bulgarian politicians who were sanctioned over the weekend by the Global Magnitsky Act and the Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC of the US Treasury and by the British government have denied involvement in corruption.
As the state prosecution stayed silent on the allegations, the Democratic Bulgaria alliance demanded the resignation of Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev, seen as an obstacle to judicial reforms and as a protector of the political status quo.
On Monday, Nadezhda Neynsky, foreign minister from 1997 to 2001, told media that the sanctions were a sign of the shortcomings of Bulgarian institutions and likely also an answer to President Rumen Radev’s warnings that Bulgaria will oppose further sanctions to Russia and further military aid to Ukraine.
“I am appalled by the way such a serious body as the US Treasury forms its positions … it’s a battle aimed at ousting Russian energy supplies from Europe,” claimed Bulgarian Socialist Party member and Minister of Economy and Energy from 2005 to 2007, Rumen Ovcharov.
He denied colluding with Russia. Ovcharov, 75, who has been accused of enabling a “corrosive dependence on Russian energy sources” in Bulgaria, also insisted he relied financially only on his pension.
Among those sanctioned are another Socialist Party member, former MP Ivan Kirov.
Meanwhile, the Socialist Party seemingly ignored the developments and instead announced plans to initiate a “referendum on gender ideology”, by which it confirmed its socially conservative stance against, amnong others, the so-called Istanbul Convention on violence against women.
It also excluded 14 members. The Socialists are riven by internal conflicts. The mayor of Pernik, Stanislav Vladimirov, announced his exit from the party on Monday, commenting that “this is not my party anymore.”
Among others designated as corrupt by the US are GERB member Vladislav Goranov, Finance Minister in 2017 to 2020 in Boyko Borissov’s third cabinet, Russophile Movement party leader Nickolay Malinov and Alexander Nikolov, former general director of Bulgaria’s sole nuclear power plant, Kozloduy.
On Saturday Ex-PM and GERB leader Boyko Borissov said he “deeply believed” in Goranov’s innocence but also noted that since 2020 his party is not involved with him. In March last year, during Kiril Petkov’s government, both Borissov and Goranov were briefly arrested.
Russophile movement leader Nickolay Malinov on local media made a boast of being on the Magnitsky Act’s list. Malinov said that he felt “flattered” that the US is blacklisting him. “This means I’m heading in the right direction,” he said on Saturday. In 2019, he was charged with espionage.
The UK has focused on blocking financial transfers and denying future entry to individuals previously sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky act from June 2021:
Its measures affect former media mogul and Movement for Rights and Freedoms MP Delyan Peevski, the exiled oligarch and gambling tycoon Vassil Bozhkov (whose business was nationalised in early 2020 during Goranov’s time as Finance Minister) and the former deputy chief of Bulgaria’s special intelligence service, Ilko Zhelyazkov. The three have not commented.
The eight Bulgarians sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act represent almost all those designated by the EU, apart from disgraced Slovak businessman Marián Kočner.
International criticism of corruption in Bulgaria has intensified. In January, a lack of political transparency in Bulgaria was called out by GRECO, the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body. US ambassador Hero Mustafa said that “in Bulgaria, the oligarchs have an extremely strong grip. They amass power through the politicians and keep it through economic means to keep their image clean.”
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