Kiril Petkov has learnt one crucial lesson about fighting corruption in eastern Europe during his short stint as Bulgaria’s prime minister. “We curbed corruption locally but found we had a bigger enemy: Russian influence,” he told The Times. “We didn’t understand that corruption and Russian influence in Bulgaria are the same thing. Corruption is Moscow’s best foreign policy instrument in the Balkans.”
The Harvard-educated moderniser fought to keep Russian spies and local gangsters at bay after winning power in the EU’s poorest country in December. He lost a confidence vote and resigned as prime minister last month, but remains in the post until a new cabinet is formed or elections are held in the autumn — and he fears that Russia is determined to topple him for good. He is determined to make a stand on President Putin’s influence-peddling in eastern Europe.
Petkov’s woes began in April when he refused to pay Moscow in roubles for gas and then struck a deal for alternative supplies from Azerbaijan when Putin turned off the taps. It was a huge change for a country which received about 90 per cent of its gas from Russia, but Petkov said it was long overdue. “Azeri gas cost three times less than Gazprom gas, but the previous government had somehow given up on it. They said there was no pipeline, but it turns out we have an existing link which is sufficient. Someone had made a deal to pay three times as much,” he said. “You have to be extremely stupid — or corrupt — to do that.” He said that a new SUV, paid for by a Russian construction company, had been found in the garage of a spin doctor for the previous administration.
The Azeri gas deal was a seismic shift for Bulgaria, a former faithful ally of the Soviet Union. Petkov, speaking in the prime minister’s grand, Soviet-era office in Sofia, claimed that Moscow reacted to the deal by stoking opposition in parliament, leading to the confidence vote in his government last month. A week later he hit back by expelling 70 Russian diplomats. “I am fairly sure that some of the 70 people we sent back were actively talking to MPs in parliament and giving journalists articles ready for publication,” he said. “The [Russian] ambassador was suspected to be playing an active role, taking politicians to Greece on holiday. This was complete meddling.”
He lifted Bulgaria’s veto on the EU membership application by its neighbour North Macedonia, despite Russian opposition. “Russia had an effect on both sides of the border,” he said. “We saw co-ordinated action as our nationalists came up with media initiatives before our cultural office in North Macedonia was burnt down.” At the other end of the country, on the border with Turkey, Petkov’s government was feeling the raw power of the Bulgarian mafia after ousting allegedly corrupt private managers at Kapitan Andreevo, a customs post long suspected of waving through migrants packed into lorries in return for bribes.
“It was also the largest drug-smuggling border in the world,” said Ivan Hristanov, an IT entrepreneur who signed up with Petkov as deputy agriculture minister to clean up the border. He now has bodyguards stationed in the corridor outside his Sofia office after receiving threats. He said: “I think they were making €1 billion a year through smuggling at the border. That’s why what we have done hurts.” Bulgarian investigative journalists have alleged links between the underworld figures running the border crossing and members of parliament.
A party founded by the TV presenter and singer Slavi Trifonov pulled the plug on the government, pointing to disagreements over the budget and the North Macedonia deal. But Hristanov insists: “What we did at the border was a main reason for the confidence vote.”
The companies that controlled the border crossing may yet win back their concessions as they challenge their expulsion in the courts, and observers fear that friendly judges may help them. Petkov accused Bulgaria’s prosecutor-general of not investigating corrupt MPs, but said it would need a vote from two thirds of MPs to fire him. The problem, he claimed, is that over a third of MPs would risk investigation under a new prosecutor-general.
If no one can pull together a new majority and the country heads for an autumn election, analysts expect a good showing from the nationalist Revival party, led by Kostadin Kostadinov, who dismisses Russia’s Ukraine invasion as a “civil war” and demands the return of the 70 Russian diplomats. He has called their expulsion “diplomatic terrorism”.
Now polling at about 10 per cent, Kostadinov rejects accusations that he takes orders from the Kremlin, instead claiming parties like Petkov’s are American stooges. “A week ago all the leaders of the pro-US parties were caught meeting the US ambassador and receiving instructions as consultations on the new government began. Those who go to the US embassy like to accuse us of going to the Russian embassy,” he said.
Analysts believe the devastation Putin has caused in Ukraine has shocked Bulgarians and ended the country’s long-standing affinity with Moscow, but warn that the coming winter will test its resolve to reject Russian gas and the corrupting influence that comes with it.
Petkov ended his interview with The Times to prepare for a flight to Azerbaijan to discuss Bulgaria’s new gas supply. But as he left he claimed that defeating criminal oligarchs in Bulgaria was within his grasp. “I have realised there are 20 key people,” he said. “Corruption is not spread out in the system. It is down to key people in government and about 20 people in the private sector — the long- term players. If we had a fully independent prosecutor this country could be cleaned up in a year.”
Seeing his administration defeated last month was part of the price that had to be paid, he said. “It’s all been worth it, even if the cost was my government.”
> We didn’t understand that corruption and Russian influence in Bulgaria are the same thing.
Which are the least corrupt Eastern European countries? Poland, the Baltics and Georgia. I wonder why…
I never thought about how much Russia could have spies everywhere. After Russia attacked Ukraine, I just can’t stop thinking how many radical movements have probably been coordinated by Russia. After mass resignation of Russian diplomats and alleged spies, I started to realize how large operations Russia may have abroad.
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Article text:
Kiril Petkov has learnt one crucial lesson about fighting corruption in eastern Europe during his short stint as Bulgaria’s prime minister. “We curbed corruption locally but found we had a bigger enemy: Russian influence,” he told The Times. “We didn’t understand that corruption and Russian influence in Bulgaria are the same thing. Corruption is Moscow’s best foreign policy instrument in the Balkans.”
The Harvard-educated moderniser fought to keep Russian spies and local gangsters at bay after winning power in the EU’s poorest country in December. He lost a confidence vote and resigned as prime minister last month, but remains in the post until a new cabinet is formed or elections are held in the autumn — and he fears that Russia is determined to topple him for good. He is determined to make a stand on President Putin’s influence-peddling in eastern Europe.
Petkov’s woes began in April when he refused to pay Moscow in roubles for gas and then struck a deal for alternative supplies from Azerbaijan when Putin turned off the taps. It was a huge change for a country which received about 90 per cent of its gas from Russia, but Petkov said it was long overdue. “Azeri gas cost three times less than Gazprom gas, but the previous government had somehow given up on it. They said there was no pipeline, but it turns out we have an existing link which is sufficient. Someone had made a deal to pay three times as much,” he said. “You have to be extremely stupid — or corrupt — to do that.” He said that a new SUV, paid for by a Russian construction company, had been found in the garage of a spin doctor for the previous administration.
The Azeri gas deal was a seismic shift for Bulgaria, a former faithful ally of the Soviet Union. Petkov, speaking in the prime minister’s grand, Soviet-era office in Sofia, claimed that Moscow reacted to the deal by stoking opposition in parliament, leading to the confidence vote in his government last month. A week later he hit back by expelling 70 Russian diplomats. “I am fairly sure that some of the 70 people we sent back were actively talking to MPs in parliament and giving journalists articles ready for publication,” he said. “The [Russian] ambassador was suspected to be playing an active role, taking politicians to Greece on holiday. This was complete meddling.”
He lifted Bulgaria’s veto on the EU membership application by its neighbour North Macedonia, despite Russian opposition. “Russia had an effect on both sides of the border,” he said. “We saw co-ordinated action as our nationalists came up with media initiatives before our cultural office in North Macedonia was burnt down.” At the other end of the country, on the border with Turkey, Petkov’s government was feeling the raw power of the Bulgarian mafia after ousting allegedly corrupt private managers at Kapitan Andreevo, a customs post long suspected of waving through migrants packed into lorries in return for bribes.
“It was also the largest drug-smuggling border in the world,” said Ivan Hristanov, an IT entrepreneur who signed up with Petkov as deputy agriculture minister to clean up the border. He now has bodyguards stationed in the corridor outside his Sofia office after receiving threats. He said: “I think they were making €1 billion a year through smuggling at the border. That’s why what we have done hurts.” Bulgarian investigative journalists have alleged links between the underworld figures running the border crossing and members of parliament.
A party founded by the TV presenter and singer Slavi Trifonov pulled the plug on the government, pointing to disagreements over the budget and the North Macedonia deal. But Hristanov insists: “What we did at the border was a main reason for the confidence vote.”
The companies that controlled the border crossing may yet win back their concessions as they challenge their expulsion in the courts, and observers fear that friendly judges may help them. Petkov accused Bulgaria’s prosecutor-general of not investigating corrupt MPs, but said it would need a vote from two thirds of MPs to fire him. The problem, he claimed, is that over a third of MPs would risk investigation under a new prosecutor-general.
If no one can pull together a new majority and the country heads for an autumn election, analysts expect a good showing from the nationalist Revival party, led by Kostadin Kostadinov, who dismisses Russia’s Ukraine invasion as a “civil war” and demands the return of the 70 Russian diplomats. He has called their expulsion “diplomatic terrorism”.
Now polling at about 10 per cent, Kostadinov rejects accusations that he takes orders from the Kremlin, instead claiming parties like Petkov’s are American stooges. “A week ago all the leaders of the pro-US parties were caught meeting the US ambassador and receiving instructions as consultations on the new government began. Those who go to the US embassy like to accuse us of going to the Russian embassy,” he said.
Analysts believe the devastation Putin has caused in Ukraine has shocked Bulgarians and ended the country’s long-standing affinity with Moscow, but warn that the coming winter will test its resolve to reject Russian gas and the corrupting influence that comes with it.
Petkov ended his interview with The Times to prepare for a flight to Azerbaijan to discuss Bulgaria’s new gas supply. But as he left he claimed that defeating criminal oligarchs in Bulgaria was within his grasp. “I have realised there are 20 key people,” he said. “Corruption is not spread out in the system. It is down to key people in government and about 20 people in the private sector — the long- term players. If we had a fully independent prosecutor this country could be cleaned up in a year.”
Seeing his administration defeated last month was part of the price that had to be paid, he said. “It’s all been worth it, even if the cost was my government.”
> We didn’t understand that corruption and Russian influence in Bulgaria are the same thing.
Which are the least corrupt Eastern European countries? Poland, the Baltics and Georgia. I wonder why…
I never thought about how much Russia could have spies everywhere. After Russia attacked Ukraine, I just can’t stop thinking how many radical movements have probably been coordinated by Russia. After mass resignation of Russian diplomats and alleged spies, I started to realize how large operations Russia may have abroad.
He is right. Nobody can do that alone. See Italy.