Bulgaria’s government faces collapse this week
SOFIA — Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov’s government is likely to fall in a no-confidence vote on Wednesday, removing an administration that vowed to clean up the country’s endemic corruption...
View ArticleWestern Balkans leaders will attend EU summit, dropping boycott threats
After threatening to boycott the EU-Western Balkans summit, leaders of Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia will go to Brussels on Thursday after all. In a statement, Serbia’s President Aleksandar...
View ArticleBulgaria’s Petkov points finger at mafia and Russia as government collapses
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov planted the blame squarely on Russia and his own country’s powerful mafia after his government lost a no-confidence vote on Wednesday. Petkov, who only came to...
View ArticleWestern Balkans leaders fume after summit fails to unblock EU bids
EU leaders failed on Thursday to overcome Bulgaria’s objection to North Macedonia joining the bloc, leaving several Western Balkans leaders fuming at how the entire region’s EU aspirations have been...
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Bulgarian PM urges North Macedonia to show ‘guts’ and accept French deal on...
Bulgaria’s outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov on Friday urged his Macedonian counterpart Dimitar Kovačevski to be brave and to accept a French-led compromise that would open the door for Skopje to...
View ArticleBulgarian MPs open path for North Macedonia’s EU accession talks
Bulgarian lawmakers on Friday overturned Sofia’s effective veto on North Macedonia beginning EU membership talks, but insisted on conditions that Skopje could well reject. Four political parties...
View ArticleBulgaria expels 70 Russian diplomats and spies
Outgoing Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov on Tuesday announced the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats — many of them spies using diplomatic cover — for interfering in the Balkan country’s domestic...
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Bulgaria sounds alarm over EU’s mafia-run border
Bulgaria’s outgoing government is using its last breath to sound the alarm over how mobsters seized control of a key border crossing into the EU — undermining food safety and the supposed common...
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The EU’s gas-rationing plan faces a haircut
When they meet in Brussels on Tuesday, EU energy ministers will be under intense pressure to agree on a common gas-saving plan ahead of winter to buttress the bloc in case the Kremlin turns off the...
View ArticleBulgarian president calls snap election on October 2
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev called a snap election to be held on October 2 — the country’s fourth parliamentary vote within two years — after the collapse of the government under Kiril Petkov in...
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Bulgaria risks a relapse into its addiction to Russia’s Gazprom
SOFIA — It hasn’t taken long for Bulgaria to start slipping back into the Russian orbit — particularly when it comes to the vexed question of gas dependence. A caretaker government that assumed power...
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Groundhog Day: It’s another Bulgarian election
Bulgaria will hold its fourth election in 18 months on Sunday, but there is little sign that the country is about to break its entrenched political impasse. This prospect of deadlock is bad news for a...
View ArticleBorissov leads in Bulgaria’s election but faces battle to form a government
Former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov took the lead in Bulgaria’s election on Sunday, but it is still highly unclear whether the tarnished former karate champion can form a government. According to...
View ArticleFor Bulgaria, Borissov’s comeback is no path to stability
Dimitar Bechev is a lecturer at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and the author of “Rival Power: Russia in Southeast Europe.” Who won in the...
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Bulgaria to the rescue: How the EU’s poorest country secretly saved Ukraine
Last spring, Ukraine’s army was running desperately low on the fuel and Soviet caliber ammunition it needed to fight the Russians. Salvation came from an unexpected quarter: Bulgaria. Thanks to its...
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Republic of Radev: Bulgaria’s impasse empowers its elusive president
SOFIA — Bulgaria’s fifth general election in two years on Sunday is unlikely to break the country’s long-running political deadlock, meaning that the enigmatic president, Rumen Radev, is once again...
View ArticleBulgaria faces coalition talks after close election
The center-right GERB party was the winner in Bulgaria’s election on Sunday night. In the final count, GERB won 26.5 percent of the vote, with a pro-Western coalition led by Continuing the Change (PP)...
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Bulgaria: No light at the end of the tunnel
Dimitar Bechev is a lecturer at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and the author of “Rival Power: Russia in Southeast Europe.” A couple weeks ago,...
View ArticleBulgaria offers EU two candidates for vacant commissioner post
SOFIA — The incoming Bulgarian government picked two candidates to fill the country’s open slot for a European commissioner: Iliana Ivanova and Daniel Lorer. Ivanova is a member of the European Court...
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Bulgaria must rid its spy services of Russia-backed agents, says head of...
SOFIA — Bulgaria must prioritize an overhaul of its security services and flush out Moscow-backed agents if it hopes to succeed in its ambitious plans of rooting out organized crime and corruption,...
View ArticleBulgaria will invite Dutch and Austrian customs experts to help secure...
BRUSSELS — Bulgaria will invite Dutch and Austrian customs “experts” to observe operations at the Turkish border to try to ease concerns that are impeding its bid to join the Schengen passport-free...
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Russian oil titan Lukoil eyes the end of its reign in Bulgaria
BURGAS, Bulgaria — Russia’s largest private oil company Lukoil casts an immense economic and political shadow over Bulgaria — but the energy major’s privileged position in the Balkan country is in...
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In Bulgaria, demise of top prosecutor raises questions about judicial reform
SOFIA — At the beginning of July, Bulgaria’s former chief prosecutor, who rarely took questions while in office, turned to Facebook Live. As Ivan Geshev read awkwardly from the teleprompter, staring...
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America and Britain are still educating the world’s leaders
Walter Ellis is a Northern Ireland-born, France-based journalist and commentator. He’s the author of “The Beginning of the End: The Crippling Disadvantage of a Happy Irish Childhood.” Who knew that...
View ArticleBulgaria kicks out Russian church boss
Bulgarian authorities have expelled the head of the Russian church in the country over what they say is a “threat to national security,” Russian diplomats told Moscow’s state-run news agency TASS....
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‘Cockroach strategy’: How Europe failed to sap Russia’s energy profits
BRUSSELS — In early August, Bulgarian officials spotted something they weren’t sure was legal. Barrels of Russian oil were arriving in the country priced above a $60 limit allies had adopted to sap...
View ArticleBulgaria moves to end Russia sanctions opt-out as pressure mounts
BRUSSELS — Bulgarian lawmakers on Wednesday took the first step toward ending a sanctions exemption that has raised millions of euros for Russia, bowing to growing calls for action. The move, while...
View ArticleBulgaria votes to scrap sanctions opt-out that raked in €1B for Putin
Bulgarian lawmakers on Monday voted in favor of scrapping an exemption to EU sanctions six months early amid outcry that the measure is raising millions for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war...
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Mafia state pushes Bulgarian democracy to the brink
SOFIA — Bulgaria’s election next month is boiling down to the role of a sanctioned tycoon and his capacity to undermine the nation’s fragile democracy. To his critics — particularly from reformist,...
View ArticleBulgaria elections postponed as political crisis deepens
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev refused to appoint a caretaker government on Monday, prolonging the country’s political stalemate amid a rift over the nomination of Kalin Stoyanov to continue serving...
View ArticleBulgaria calls new election, closes in on EU commissioner pick
After months of political uncertainty, Bulgaria is going back to the polls — and is close to finally proposing a European commissioner. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had asked EU...
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