Bulgaria’s parliament confirms Russia-aligned Radev as prime minister

Lets be honest, any eastern ex soviet country will always be prime for russian intervention or invasion, EU or not

It would require strict control over social media. USA won't allow that.

Russians have influence in Bulgaria befor Bulgaria got its independance. Most of the elite in the new state was educated in Russia.  Then from 1944 till 1989 Bulgaria was practicaly ocupied by Soviets and being anti russian was dangerous for your health and freedom. All of the elite was pro russian. So its not that hard to imagine that Russia still have a lot of influence in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria doesn't think of itself as a Western country. It's a compilation of really bad and obsolete socialist education system who still portrais Russia as our only "savior" against the "collective West" (NATO, yes *that NATO* we are a part of and yes, there are people who want to exit it because they don't understand the meaning of it) and a little bit of social media algorithm propaganda which is practically free. 😄 We never became a soviet republic just because USSR knew it wasn't necessary as we were the most compliant soviet satellite anyway.

It’s not at all surprising. It’s like people forget that we’re all humans and being the hero is actually pretty hard in most environments. Resistance is everywhere.

There's already Fico in Slovakia 😞

Don't worry, ours is Orban from AliExpress who is used to hide after the president post without any real power. Now it's different because he will be the one responsible for all of the decisions. Mind you two weeks after the elections his own electorate is dissatisfied because literally everyone who voted for him was just protecting their own agency whereas he said literally nothing during the campaign.

So is Hungary after Orban rule...

it's not dirt poor. it's on a level with a Greece and Romania which have higher inflation and higher depths. Croatia is also somewhere here along with Hungary.

I really hope this is the case

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The EU should probably be very clear about that immediately: populations are free to choose their Russian stooges as overlords, but if those stooges threaten EU-wide internal or external interests by doing Russia's bidding, you lose all your sweet EU subsidies. I'd like to say the EU can also threaten with extra EPPO checks, but EPPO is being de-fanged unfortunately.

Why? He was democratically elected.

Cause he spew Russian propaganda about Ukraine. Other than that, he is pretty much pro-EU and Nato but we'll see how it goes.

Repeatedly opposed EU efforts to send military aid to Ukraine for its war against Russia's full-scale invasion. Said that recognizing Crimea as part of Russia is "a realistic position," which clashes directly with EU policy on Ukraine. Opposes Russian sanctions. Radev has claimed that "sanctions against Moscow bring no concrete benefits and only harm the economies of Russia and the European Union."  Has talked about resuming the free flow of Russian oil and gas into Europe. He entered politics in 2016 when he became president, supported by the traditionally Moscow-aligned Bulgarian Socialist Party. Has criticized the European Union and called for a new security architecture in Europe, echoing a key Kremlin talking point. The Atlantic Council warned that a Radev-led government could "replace Hungary as Putin's proxy inside the EU and NATO," to the detriment of Ukraine. Politico included Radev as one of five "possible successors to Orbán as a key destabilizer in the EU," alongside Robert Fico of Slovakia and Andrej Babiš of Czechia. In 2021, called Crimea Russian. Radev has resisted neighboring North Macedonia's accession to the European Union, a position that aligns with destabilizing Balkan integration, which benefits Russia strategically.  Radev has argued: "It is not normal to import oil from distant countries, through straits with high fees and risk, when the c**** oil, for which our \[Lukoil-owned\] refinery is adapted, is two days away by direct route across the Black Sea", meaning buying oil from Russia. Against the sanctions being used to pressure Russia. Radev objected to a defense pact concluded between Bulgaria and Ukraine, and called for the resumption of Russian imports to Europe despite EU sanctions on Russian energy. He says he isn't pro-Russia, just pro-Bulgaria. But oddly everything he considers to be "pro-Bulgaria" happens to be pro-Russia. If he genuinely doesn't believe he is pro-Russia, then Russia has clearly recruited a useful fool (олезные дураки).

Bro, radev was selected to run as a president from former kgb agent Leonid Petrovich Reshetnikov. It’s not a secret it’s just people don’t have strong memory to remember things. He is pro Russian as they come

Exactly! The title is wrong in so many ways….