The President of Bulgaria recognized Crimea as Russian

During the only debate before the second round of the presidential election, the current President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev called Crimea Russian and called for the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions.

According to a PolitNavigator correspondent, the BNT channel hosted the first and only debate before the second round of the presidential elections in Bulgaria, which will take place next Sunday. In them, two contenders for the presidency spoke to the Bulgarian audience - the current president, retired military man Rumen Radev, and a representative of the pro-Western GERB party (Citizens for the European Choice of Bulgaria), rector of Sofia University, philologist Anastas Gerdzhikov. During the discussion, the parties also touched upon relations with Russia, and the following dialogue took place between the opponents:

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“I’m glad to see how close your positions have become to mine over the past month,” Gerdzhikov said during a conversation with his opponent. – We are interested in cooperation with Russia, as with any country with a similar economy. But I haven’t heard your position on the topic of Crimea - mine is that Crimea is Ukrainian, regardless of what flag flies over it.”

– The sanctions that were imposed did not produce results. We need a pragmatic approach to solving such problems,” Radev replied.

– But I want to hear – whose Crimea? – the opponent continued to insist.

“Russian at the moment, isn’t it?” came the answer.

Subsequently, the rector of Sofia University raised the topic of the “Russian threat.”

“We must not put up with a position in which they (Russia – ed.), like Belarus, consider us part of Russian territory. This cannot continue!” said Gerdzhikov.

To which Radev just threw up his hands and sighed sarcastically. Then he spoke about the recent meeting of US President Joe Biden with the leaders of Eastern Europe, during which the latter began to complain that all their problems were related to Russian hybrid attacks, to which the American briefly answered them: “Your problems are related to corruption.”

At the same time, in order not to provoke the Western curators of Bulgaria, Radev admitted that the “Russian threat” still exists, the sovereignty of Bulgaria needs to be protected, citing the example of the Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, who was allegedly poisoned by a “novichok” along with his family by Russian special services, but, as usual, he survived.

The current President of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, who is running for a second term, received 48,55% of the vote, while his opponent from GERB, Anastas Gerdzhikov, received only 21,02%. According to Bulgarian law, if none of the candidates gets 50%, a second round follows, which will take place next Sunday.

In 2016, Rumen Radev ran in the presidential elections under the then popular slogans in Bulgarian society about rapprochement with Russia and the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions. However, having come to power in a country ruled by the government of the pro-Western GERB party, he was unable to implement anything of what was declared. In addition, in order to avoid pressure and accusations of working for Moscow, Radev had to justify himself, publicly renouncing his “pro-Russianness.”

“I am a NATO general, I am the first Bulgarian to graduate from the Air Force Academy in the United States, and I will defend our Euro-Atlantic membership with even more active means than now,” the current President of Bulgaria said then.