Bulgarian Intelligence Says Russia Pays Public Figures to Spread Propaganda

Euro­pean media is report­ing that Bul­gar­i­an secret ser­vices say Rus­sia pays about €2,000 per month to pub­lic fig­ures, jour­nal­ists, and politi­cians in Bul­gar­ia to spread its pro­pa­gan­da. Accord­ing to a report by Euractiv:

July 4, 2022 The Bul­gar­i­an secret ser­vices have data show­ing that Rus­sia pays about €2000 (BGN 4,000) per month to pub­lic fig­ures, jour­nal­ists, and politi­cians to spread its pro­pa­gan­da in the coun­try, a gov­ern­ment spokesper­son and head of the prime minister’s office, Lena Borislavo­va told Darik radio over the week­end. […] Borislavo­va explained that the mon­ey was giv­en to Bul­gar­i­an politi­cians, famous jour­nal­ists, ana­lysts, polit­i­cal sci­en­tists and oth­er per­sons appear­ing in the pub­lic media. The Russ­ian state paid them to shape pub­lic opin­ion.  “To all of you who spit on the EU and NATO for free, as well as sup­port Putin’s actions in Ukraine, you should know. You are screwed up. Those who inspire you to do so are paid. Month­ly,” she added.

Read the rest here.

UK media report­ed in July that Bul­gar­ia, which has in the past had clos­er ties with Moscow than most EU allies, expelled 70 Russ­ian diplo­mats over espi­onage con­cerns — the largest num­ber from any Euro­pean nation since the inva­sion of Ukraine. The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report has pre­vi­ous­ly report­ed that Rus­sia had been accused of either influ­enc­ing or back­ing a pro-Russ­ian Bul­gar­i­an far-right par­ty called Revival of the Home­land, which entered par­lia­ment for the first time in Novem­ber 2021. Pro-Russ­ian state­ments by Kostadin Kostadi­nov, the group’s leader, have been ampli­fied by the for­eign min­istry of the Russ­ian-occu­pied “Donet­sk People’s Repub­lic.” Kostadi­nov has been banned from enter­ing Ukraine for ten years over accu­sa­tions of being a Russ­ian spy.

In May, we report­ed that the Ital­ian par­lia­ment also launched an inquiry to inves­ti­gate whether some Russ­ian com­men­ta­tors appear­ing on Ital­ian TV net­works could be on Putin’s payroll.