Photo: U.S. Embassy Sofia Facebook

Sofia, June 3 (BTA) - Bulgarian politicians and analysts on
Thursday are reacting to, and commenting on, Wednesday's news
that the US Department of the Treasury (USDT) and the US
Department of State (DOS) have imposed sanctions on a total of
six Bulgarians: four former and current public officials, and
controversial businessmen Delyan Peevski and Vassil Bojkov, over
 their involvement in significant corruption. The sanctions are
Washington's biggest single-day action under the Magnitsky Act.

Peevski

Peevski dismissed the designation as "an absolutely
inadmissible, biased act that is at odds with the spirit and
meaning of the [Magnitsky] Act. This is so because I have done
nothing to harm internationally recognized human rights, I am
not a civil servant and have not participated in corrupt acts,
and the listed reasons for the imposed sanctions do not state a
single true fact." In an open letter to the media, released late
 Wednesday evening, the designee said he will challenge the
sanctions in court. The businessman blamed "a media oligarch and
 privatizer" who "brags of his contacts" and "has spent
considerable financial and political resources" on this
campaign. He did not name that person but was most probably
referring to the "Capital" weekly publisher Ivo Prokopiev. The
two and their media empires have been locked in a long-drawn
feud.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), on whose candidate
list Peevski has been elected in four successive parliaments
between 2009 and 2017, said in a position it circulated on
Thursday morning that until it sees the facts and evidence that
prompted the US administration to impose sanctions on Peevski,
it remains in solidarity with the personal position expressed by
 Peevski on Wednesday.
 
"It is claimed that Delyan Slavchev Peevski is an oligarch who
before that was a Bulgarian MP and media tycoon and was
regularly involved in corruption, by resorting to trade in
influence and bribes to protect himself from public control and
to exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian
society," the MRF noted in its position. "[It is also claimed
that] In September 2019, Peevski worked hard on the exertion of
negative influence on the political process in Bulgaria during
the local elections of October 27, 2019, and he agreed with
politicians to provide them with political support and positive
media coverage in exchange for protection against criminal
proceedings," the party said. The MRF argues that, considering
Peevski has not held a senior public office since 2009, he could
 not have possibly been involved in corruption as defined by the
 Bulgarian law.

In 2013, Peevski served briefly as Chair of the State Agency for
 National Security, triggering a public outrage and mass street
protests which later led to the resignation of the Plamen
Oresharski Government that nominated him for the position.

In a televised interview on Thursday morning, former Bulgarian
ambassador in Washington Elena Poptodorova said that Peevski was
 not nominated by the MRF in the April 4, 2021 parliamentary
elections probably because the party had been warned about his
forthcoming exposure.

In the same interview, expert Tihomir Bezlov of the Center for
the Study of Democracy, noted that, unlike Bojkov, who faces 19
criminal charges in Bulgaria and is hiding from justice in
Dubai, Peevski has not even been questioned as a witness by the
Bulgarian prosecution service despite widespread allegations
about his wrongdoings.

Bojkov

In a Facebook post, Vassil Bojkov thanked the US for taking
notice of his alert, which he describes as "the first official
testimony of gross racketeering and extortion on the part of the
 [former finance minister] Vladislav Goranov". Bojkov claims
credit as being the first whistleblower against what he calls
"the junta" to all international law-enforcement institutions.
The gambling mogul promised to give a news conference later in
the day.

In its press release, the USDT said that Bojkov has bribed
government officials on several occasions, including "a current
political leader". Approached by bTV, the DOS declined to
identify that individual. Bezlov supposed that this is Communist
 Party of Bulgaria leader Alexander Paounov, a record of whose
conversation with Bojkov has been released by the prosecution
service. According to Poptodorva, Bulgaria should "do its own
homework": to locate that person.

Link to Elections?

The US designation and sanctions come a month an a half before
the July 11 early parliamentary elections in Bulgaria. Bojkov's
brainchild, the Bulgarian Summer party, has recently won
definitively a case against prosecutors' challenge of its
registration and will run in the July 11 elections. At the same
time, the USDT designated Bulgarian Summer as one of 58 entities
 registered in Bulgaria that are owned or controlled by Bojkov
or one of his companies.

Meeting the media on Wednesday evening, however, visiting USDT
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Paul Ahern, denied that
the sanctions were a political action. He argued that when the
US launched the investigation, it could not have possibly known
that there will be elections in July. The US was clear that it
should act as soon as work on collecting evidence was completed,
 he said.

Russian Connection?

The USDT said that "Bojkov also planned to provide a sum of
money to a former Bulgarian official and a Bulgarian politician
earlier this year to help Bojkov create a channel for Russian
political leaders to influence Bulgarian government officials."
On the other hand, the bTV correspondent in the US recalled that
 banker Tzvetan Vassilev filed a complaint under the Magnitsky
Act with the DOS against his former partner Peevski. Vassilev's
lawyers reportedly claimed that their client had been unjustly
subjected to a criminal repression in Bulgaria, for which
Peevski and then prosecutor general Sotir Tsatsarov should be
sanctioned. On Thursday, Poptodorova noted that Vassilev, who is
 being tried in absentia for forming and leading a criminal
group, allegedly responsible for embezzling some 2,700 million
leva from his Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank), plus a total
 of 146 other criminal offences, is successfully fighting
Bulgaria's bid to have him extradited from Serbia because he
enjoys Russia's protection.

Telltale Sign from US?

Political scientist Petar Cholakov sees the sanctioning as "the
US's categorical verdict about the MRF's role, and indirectly
GERB's, in the Bulgarian political system".

He notes that the designees include Alexander Manolev, who
served as deputy economy minister in the GERB government in
2017-2019 and resigned after becoming implicated in a EU funds
abuse scandal. Two other former officials that were sanctioned,
Petar Haralampiev and Krasimir Tomov, were appointed to the
State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad as nominees of GERB's
coalition partner VMRO. Two years ago, they got involved in an
alleged Bulgarian citizenship selling scheme.

"This is a testimony of the powerlessness of the Bulgarian
judicial system and prosecution service," Cholakov comments. "In
 particular, the White House seems to give very poor marks to
the performance of the Prosecutor General, Mr Geshev. As far as
the US is concerned, Bulgarian prosecutors and judges obviously
need a babysitter because they cannot cope on their own." NV/DS,
 LG