Every year on March 3, Bulgaria celebrates Liberation Day, marking the end of Ottoman rule after the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-78. The celebration is a sign of the historically close ties between Bulgaria and Russia, which have now been complicated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On March 2, the Russian ambassador laid a wreath at the Freedom Monument in honor of the victims of that 19th-century conflict, but on the same day, a Bulgarian general was arrested for spying for Russia. It follows the decision of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov to dismiss his Minister of Defense for pro-Russian statements just one day earlier.
Deep internal divisions
When Defense Minister Stefan Janev was fired, Petkov explained that “no minister has the right to have his own foreign policy through Facebook, no minister can be a burden on the coalition government and no minister can call the facts to the Ukraine with nothing but “war”. ”. “
Janev, an army officer in a NATO member state, described Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine as an “operation” on Facebook over the weekend, explicitly complying with a language rule set by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As early as December last year, Janev had been criticizing Facebook for deploying NATO troops in Bulgaria. In January, he warned that “foreign media” were harming Bulgaria’s “national interest” in covering the conflict in Ukraine.
Janev’s dismissal shows the deep internal differences in the government that took office only in December. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has made it increasingly difficult for Petkov to defuse tensions between members of his coalition — pro-Russian socialists and pro-Western reformers. The Socialists voted in both the Bulgarian and European parliaments against sanctions against Russia and the ban on Russian state media RT and Sputnik in the EU.
“In their rhetoric, the Socialists condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but oppose both sanctions and military aid to Kyiv. Their pro-Russian orientation sets them apart from other ruling parties,” said Rumena Filipova, the institute’s director for Global Analytics. in Sofia.
“This conflict has the potential to collapse the government,” Filipova told DW. Resistance to the transatlantic course of the Petkov government also comes from the supranationalist Renaissance Party.
“Their extreme positions on the abolition of all measures for COVID, the blocking of the accession of neighboring Northern Macedonia to the EU and their pro-Russian stance are widely accepted in society. “In this way, they are putting pressure on the government, which in turn is making concessions to them,” Filipova said.
A Bulgarian general is spying on Russia
The new defense minister had hardly been sworn in when the next scandal caused a stir the next morning. Bulgarian General Valentin Tsankov, who according to media reports is the reserve general and vice-president of the Bulgarian Army Association, has been arrested for spying for Russia.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador and deported two Russian diplomats. Like a year earlier, an espionage ring was uncovered at the Ministry of Defense and the military secret service. The agents disguised as diplomats at the Russian embassy are said to have been the spy’s contacts.
General Tsankov has faced similar problems in the past. In 2011, he was recalled from Washington as a military follower when it was revealed that he had worked for the Communist Military Intelligence Service in the 1980s and had been trained in Moscow.
If the allegations against Tsankov, who has been accused of spying for Russia since 2016, are true, the case would be further evidence of Russia’s continued infiltration of Bulgarian security services since the Cold War.
“Bulgarian army units and generals have often been irritated by their pro-Russian statements and their allegiance to NATO is questionable,” Filipova said.
Public opinion at a tipping point?
It is not only the socialists, nationalists and the security apparatus in Bulgaria that are traditionally pro-Russian. There is also sympathy for Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin among the general population. According to a poll by the Alpha Research Institute, about 50% of the Bulgarian population had a positive opinion of Putin in early 2022.
At the beginning of February, only 40% were in favor of Bulgaria’s accession to NATO – and only 28% were in favor of the country’s greater membership in NATO, in view of the impending war.
But Russia’s attack on Ukraine seems to be changing public opinion. Four days after the attack, support for Putin fell to 32%.
At the same time, an old and highly symbolic controversy over a Soviet Army monument in central Sofia has erupted again. For Russian supporters, it is a symbol of liberation from fascism, while pro-Western Bulgarians see it as a symbol of Soviet oppression.
Plans to relocate him date back to 1993, but have been delayed again and again. When pro-Ukraine demonstrations broke out after the start of the war, protesters spray-painted the monument in Ukrainian national colors of blue and yellow and chanted slogans such as “Honor Ukraine!” and “Putler – leave Ukraine!”
Three protesters who spray-painted the monument were arrested, Interior Minister Boyko Raskov said last Wednesday. He described as “disturbing” and “unbearable” the actions of the police, who kept the three minors overnight without informing their parents or lawyers.
Last week ‘s turmoil shows the full extent of Bulgaria’ s division. Its relationship with Russia is more ambiguous than ever, both in government and in the general population.
This article was originally published in German
Correction, March 7, 2022: An earlier version of this article mistyped the name of the former Bulgarian Minister of Defense and misidentified the Institute for Global Analytics. DW apologizes for the mistake.
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